Daniel Markovits | Meritocracy Debate | Propositon (3/8) | Oxford Union (YouTube Video Transcript)

(00:00:00) Your YouTube transcript will appear here (00:00:08) beach (00:00:09) now i caught up on professor daniel (00:00:11) markovis to continue the case for (00:00:13) proposition (00:00:22) thank you mr president (00:00:24) and thanks to all of you for coming (00:00:26) tonight i know (00:00:27) there are hundreds of channels and (00:00:29) thousands of websites so i'm grateful to (00:00:31) you for being here (00:00:34) well i am standing in a room of uber (00:00:37) meritocrats (00:00:39) devoted to the project of attacking (00:00:41) meritocracy (00:00:42) which means i'll spend a lot of my time (00:00:45) attacking all of you (00:00:47) now i think it'll be okay for two (00:00:50) reasons the first is that one of my (00:00:52) themes is going to be (00:00:54) that meritocracy makes the elites (00:00:56) gluttons for punishment so you'll enjoy (00:00:58) being attacked (00:01:00) the second is that i'm genuinely (00:01:03) interested in what you think (00:01:05) and please after the debate is over you (00:01:07) have my name if you have thoughts send (00:01:10) them to me (00:01:11) i want to make three points (00:01:13) the first (00:01:14) is that meritocracy excludes most of (00:01:17) society from meaningful access to (00:01:19) advantage (00:01:20) not because we live in in (00:01:23) inadequate meritocracy but because (00:01:25) meritocracy is operating as designed (00:01:28) the second (00:01:29) is that meritocracy ensnares (00:01:32) even those who seem to succeed (00:01:35) in a web (00:01:36) of (00:01:37) effort manipulation self-distortion that (00:01:41) harms them (00:01:43) and the third (00:01:44) is that meritocracy does both of these (00:01:46) things by focusing all our energies (00:01:49) on things that are shallow (00:01:51) and not worthy (00:01:52) instead of on the human excellencies (00:01:54) that we should in fact individually and (00:01:56) collectively aspire to achieve (00:02:00) let me begin with the first (00:02:02) if i look around this room of oxford (00:02:04) undergraduates 40 of you were privately (00:02:06) educated (00:02:07) in a country in which seven percent of (00:02:10) students have private educations (00:02:12) eighty percent of you come from (00:02:14) meaningful social and economic privilege (00:02:17) as we heard a moment ago at my (00:02:19) university yale there are more students (00:02:22) from the top one percent of the income (00:02:23) distribution than from the entire bottom (00:02:26) half (00:02:27) now my university's admissions process (00:02:29) is corrupt (00:02:30) and failures of meritocracy might (00:02:33) explain it (00:02:34) but oxford's is not corrupt (00:02:36) you can't buy a place here (00:02:39) there is no meaningful legacy preference (00:02:42) and yet nevertheless you're all rich and (00:02:46) you all come from privileged backgrounds (00:02:48) or almost all (00:02:50) now why is that (00:02:51) the reason is straightforward (00:02:54) famous us baseball player once said (00:02:55) practice doesn't make perfect perfect (00:02:58) practice makes perfect (00:03:00) meritocracy in fact is not as we just (00:03:03) heard that advantage turns on effort and (00:03:05) talent it turns on effort and talent and (00:03:08) one more thing investment (00:03:10) it turns on how much is invested in (00:03:13) developing a child's talent using their (00:03:15) own efforts (00:03:17) and the investment that different kinds (00:03:19) of children get in meritocratic (00:03:20) societies is absolutely enormously (00:03:24) different (00:03:25) in the united states the richest private (00:03:26) schools spend over seventy five thousand (00:03:28) dollars per pupil per year on educating (00:03:30) their children in a society in which (00:03:32) public schools on average spend about (00:03:33) twelve thousand dollars (00:03:35) in this country the richest private (00:03:37) schools spend over thirty thousand (00:03:38) pounds a year educating their children (00:03:41) these massive investments produce (00:03:44) massive differences in childhood (00:03:46) achievement (00:03:47) not because of legacy admissions but (00:03:50) because when you get trained you get (00:03:52) good at things (00:03:53) and the result therefore is that a (00:03:55) meritocracy when it works as designed (00:03:59) favors those whose parents are in a (00:04:01) position best to invest in them (00:04:04) who have the money who have the skills (00:04:07) and who have the free energy and space (00:04:10) to do so and believe me meritocrats give (00:04:13) rich parents the ability to do so i'll (00:04:15) get it in one second (00:04:18) when michael young (00:04:19) invented the term meritocracy the (00:04:22) richest in england had only half the (00:04:24) share of national income that they have (00:04:27) today the richest 10 percent of earners (00:04:31) made twice as much as the poorest 10 (00:04:33) percent of earners today they make four (00:04:35) times as much (00:04:36) a graduate of this university (00:04:39) will make 50 percent more in her first (00:04:42) year out than a graduate of the (00:04:43) university of york (00:04:45) so meritocracy creates an inequality in (00:04:48) which rich parents have the opportunity (00:04:50) to spend all this money on their (00:04:51) children which is why meritocratic (00:04:54) children are also rich children that's (00:04:57) the first point meritocracy excludes (00:04:59) most of society from meaningful (00:05:00) advantage (00:05:01) second point (00:05:03) it's not actually fun (00:05:05) to have that much invested in you as a (00:05:07) kid (00:05:08) it's not easy (00:05:10) you are poked and prodded and tested and (00:05:14) subject to tutors and classes and extra (00:05:17) help and schools and exams and you do (00:05:21) this from the earliest age (00:05:24) up until adulthood and then you come (00:05:27) here and you work hard and then you get (00:05:28) a job at mckinsey or goldman sachs and (00:05:31) you work 80 hours a week (00:05:41) and then you become parents (00:05:44) and you live in fear that your children (00:05:46) will lose the cast that you have (00:05:47) acquired by working so hard and so as (00:05:50) parents you do two jobs you squeeze into (00:05:53) your children the same thing that was (00:05:54) squeezed into you as you're working to (00:05:56) try to make the money to enable you to (00:05:58) do that it's not surprising that in (00:06:01) england (00:06:02) exam anxiety has now overtaken body (00:06:04) image as the largest source of stress in (00:06:07) wealthy children (00:06:09) it's not surprising that in the study of (00:06:11) a wealthy american private school (00:06:14) 50 percent of children had moderate to (00:06:16) severe clinical symptoms of depression (00:06:18) and 75 percent had moderate to severe (00:06:21) clinical symptoms of anxiety (00:06:24) these are not easy lives to live you (00:06:26) will be extremely wealthy (00:06:28) wealthier than you can imagine wealthier (00:06:30) than prior elites have been but you will (00:06:32) not be well (00:06:34) and your children will not be well and (00:06:36) so even as meritocracy excludes everyone (00:06:38) else (00:06:39) it will ensnare those of us in this room (00:06:42) who are fortunate (00:06:44) but that doesn't mean that in human (00:06:46) terms it serves our interests (00:06:48) that's the second point (00:06:50) third point meritocracy distorts what we (00:06:53) value (00:06:54) and how we value it (00:06:56) to begin with meritocracy has to decide (00:06:59) what merit is (00:07:01) every meritocracy invents its own way (00:07:03) the king dynasty in china had a (00:07:05) particular kind of exam based system (00:07:07) based on classical learning and a (00:07:09) certain form of very edition (00:07:11) our meritocracy also has an exam based (00:07:13) system based on the tests you need to (00:07:15) take to get into places like this and (00:07:17) then a market-based system (00:07:19) based on how much your labor is in (00:07:21) demand in a market economy that's (00:07:23) largely deregulated under neoliberalism (00:07:27) now we all know we're good at exams but (00:07:29) we also know there's all the difference (00:07:31) in the world between being able to take (00:07:32) a good test and actually understanding (00:07:34) something (00:07:35) and there's an even greater difference (00:07:37) between test taking and wisdom (00:07:39) and examine focused education distorts (00:07:43) us on trying to learn to the test (00:07:47) rather than try to understand the world (00:07:48) around us or ourselves (00:07:51) john dewey said that education is the (00:07:53) process of coming to terms with your (00:07:56) role in the world taking tests to get (00:07:59) into university is not that process (00:08:02) second of all (00:08:04) meritocracy massively distorts how we (00:08:06) think of ourselves and how we value (00:08:08) ourselves (00:08:10) meritocracy teaches that the elite (00:08:13) deserves its advantages (00:08:15) and the lived experience of the (00:08:17) meritocrat precisely because it's so (00:08:20) hard to be one (00:08:21) is one that validates that teaching (00:08:24) this is not a group of wastefuls or (00:08:26) layabouts (00:08:27) this is a group of extremely earnest (00:08:29) hard-working serious people who have (00:08:31) sacrificed a lot to get here (00:08:33) and they've done it under an ideology (00:08:35) that says when you sacrifice in this way (00:08:37) that's the effort (00:08:39) and you do really well at something (00:08:41) that's the talent then you've earned it (00:08:43) and you deserve it and so meritocracy (00:08:45) creates an elite that is indifferent to (00:08:48) the common good (00:08:49) and that believes in its own (00:08:51) entitlements (00:08:52) which is very damaging for society and (00:08:54) not so great for the elite either (00:08:57) at the same time meritocracy tells the (00:08:59) rest of society that it's their fault (00:09:02) that they aren't in this room (00:09:04) that if they'd been a little more (00:09:05) talented if they'd been a little harder (00:09:07) working if they'd been a little more (00:09:09) virtuous if they'd had a little more (00:09:11) merit (00:09:12) then they would have been able to (00:09:13) measure up they would have succeeded and (00:09:16) so they are to blame (00:09:18) for what is in fact a form of structural (00:09:20) exclusion (00:09:22) and so meritocracy makes the elite smug (00:09:25) and leaves everyone else naked in their (00:09:27) rejection (00:09:29) and that's an extremely damaging place (00:09:31) to be (00:09:32) that explains why in your country and in (00:09:34) my country those who are excluded by (00:09:36) marriage by meritocracy now have a lower (00:09:39) life expectancy than they did three (00:09:42) years ago (00:09:43) let me be clear there has been no other (00:09:45) time and place in human history in which (00:09:48) absent war or massively fatal plague and (00:09:52) covet is not that plague (00:09:54) there's been a diminution in life (00:09:55) expectancy for a large segment of the (00:09:57) population (00:09:58) the source is addiction the source is (00:10:01) alcoholism the source is obesity the (00:10:03) source of suicide (00:10:04) these are internalized forms of (00:10:06) self-hatred produced by what meritocracy (00:10:09) says to the people whom it excludes (00:10:11) just as neo-liberalism and davos are (00:10:14) internalized forms of conceit produced (00:10:16) by what meritocracy says to the elite (00:10:19) so once again (00:10:20) meritocracy excludes most people from (00:10:23) advantage (00:10:24) it ensnares the rich in a web of effort (00:10:28) and distortion (00:10:29) and it distorts all of us individually (00:10:31) and collectively making us value the (00:10:33) wrong things in the wrong ways and for (00:10:35) the wrong reasons (00:10:36) which is as the motion says why there is (00:10:39) no merit in meritocracy or why as i (00:10:43) would say merit is a sham (00:11:02) you