Meritocracy.
The fundamental concept that I believe has disoriented every parents and student that has gained a formal education in the past 2 decades.
The idea at face value is pretty simple to explain. The better, more talented you are at a thing, the more you will be rewarded for it.
Now aside the obvious blunder that this type of thinking does not apply to corrupt systems, it also has another hidden, much more subtle implication, which is extremely false.
It implies that everyone, at the start of their journey, has the same resources and opportunities to become better and more talented, and hence the ball keeps on rolling.
Now in real life, no two people have the same anything, but do you know who have more opportunities and experiences? Well the people that have more resources.
You cant learn to become a computer programmer at the age of 8, if you dont have a computer at an age younger than 8.
If I were to compare a student that has been learning 1 domain, for the past 5 years, meanwhile another student is exposed to that new domain for the first time, I don't need a PhD in Quantum Physics to figure out, that obviously the prior student will be the one that is better.
Now you might ask; Basil, How does this apply to Pakistan? Everyone's at the same level compared to international standards.
Well to you naive soul, you made one big error, the assumption that everyone directly jumps to the international level on day uno.
If I as a human being is born in a post modern, rich, educated family, where people speak multi lingual, have spaces for me to discover what my talents are - I might have a garage to experience what it feels like to play around with metal, or Lego to experience the thrill of creation, or a computer, where I can learn dictatorship of a machine using words - I by definition am already ahead of anyone that is of my own age in my own locality on day 1.
Now because the thought of Meritocracy is a perpetual idea - the better you are, the better you will be rewarded. The more privileged you are on day 1, the more you will be rewarded on day 2.
Yes there is the obvious debate that the person needs to be working hard too, to also discover these domains, which is simply non-existent in this discussion, become on the other-side of the coin, it is fundamentally impossible for a person to discover a domain, simply because they are no privileged enough.
Now this idea is deeply rooted in Capitalism, and therefore it is a western ideology, as in eastern society never has the idea of being better existed. We literally used to have kings and they would be humbled by farmers because the king understood dependency of rule. In capitalism, you have the ability to control using monopoly, hence creating a pseudo sense of dictatorship. Now this type of society is the by-product of neo-liberalism, which states a society can only flourish by a free market and no external intervention.
For those that have not realized, this is a problem for Pakistan, as it perpetuates the idea, that if you are poor, you will be left behind and that there is very little you can do to catch up.
Now the solution? Reorientation.
The first point of attack should be that parents that will be teaching the next generation, make sure that no one learns that meritocracy is the way the world works. Because well it isn't. It is also their due diligence to teach other what are the obvious flaws of meritocracy, and how it incentivizes the perception of the other, over the perception of the self - Now I hope you understand why we will live a society that is obsessed with likes and becoming popular. Simply put, in a meritocratic society, your performance is based on the "objective" standard that another individual (or corporation at large) creates, which is inherently completely subjective. Your worth becomes tide to not what you have to offer or what you are capable off, but rather do you fit in a certain set finite checklist that was created by a disoriented society trying to prove their own worth.
Our education system, at an early age tries to create a polymath, which is absurd.
In the name of general education ( which is expanding everyday at an astonishing rate ), we try to find the worth of a child, on the basis of how much knowledge he can absorb, not what he can do with that knowledge. Because measuring absorption is easier than measuring creation. Then we the same people that created this standard, are surprised when the “star” student suddenly failed in life, and because now he is an adult, he has to live with the decision “he” took as a child.
Finally:
You are you, not a mathematician, not a violinist, not a writer, not a gamer, not a cook. You are not a subject or a constantly changing and developing verb. You are a complex being, that cannot, and should not be fitted to titles, because then you will try to prove your worth relative to that title, rather than letting the titles worth be proven by your work.
Here is an amazing video that covers the topic but with a different take:
Instagram post:
