Meritocratic Fallacy — Choosing the Brightest doesn’t necessarily choose the Best — Problems of Symbolic Morality over Real Morality among the Powerful

In the most basic sense, meritocracy is the fairest and most effective way of selecting the most capable. This is most obvious in sports. The fastest runner is the fastest runner. Fastest swimmer is the fastest swimmer. The heaviest-lifter is the heaviest-lifter. We can’t argue with the results. But, we also know that the most capable are not necessarily the best in terms of morality and character. We know that many top athletes are scummy lowlifes. Who can forget the saga of OJ? Still, there is an idolatrous aspect to our nature that wants to believe that the most talented, most skilled, or most able is also the best in character. This is why most action movies have heroes who are not only the best-looking but the toughest. There is an idealized combination of attractiveness, ability, and morality. Good guys look good and are really the best. The handsome hero of SHANE really is the fastest gun in the West. Even so, we don’t expect too many athletes or some such to be paragons of morality and ethics. (But then, in our nihilistic age, many thug athletes and rappers are admired precisely because they spit on norms of morality and decency.)

But what about the elites in law, academia, government, enterprise, and media? Unlike athletes who merely need to prove their mettle in brute strength, people who succeed with their minds must gain knowledge, attend prestigious schools, and demonstrate worth on many levels of human relations. Because education is about the teaching of history, literature, science, ideas, and culture, we would like to believe that those who won by intellectual meritocracy are indeed the best kind of people. Not only the smartest but the wisest and most judicious. After all, they read so many books and gained so much knowledge. Unlike sports where brutal performance is all that counts, academics isn’t only about getting good grades but attaining higher and deeper understanding of many facets of truth. Or so we like to think.

Now, there are certain inbuilt virtues within meritocracy itself. Any serious student must have the simple virtues of effort, diligence, discipline, commitment, and stamina. Without such habits and attitudes, one cannot do well in school(unless one happens to be a super-genius). But simple virtues are just that. They are useful in the service of attaining certain goals, but they don’t reveal the higher truth or deeper meaning. After all, simple virtues can be in the service of an evil system. Dutiful and sober men can work hard to support the system. The men in the German film DAS BOOT are high in simple virtues. They are men of commitment and patriotism. But they ultimately serve an evil system.

Higher virtue arises from the question of "What kind of power am I serving?" The main character of LIVES OF OTHERS is a hard-worker and has simple virtues. But for most of his life, he never asked whether what he is doing is worth doing. He's been a ‘good soldier’ who followed orders and did his duties. He has simple virtues but is blind to the full moral implications of his work... until something alters the course of his life.

This is worth keeping in mind because there is no guarantee that those who study hard really care about anything but status, privilege, and power. They may read books, do homework, pass exams, go to good schools, get degrees, and get good jobs, BUT they may not have cared about truth, justice, or meaning. Education for them was just a means of gaining credentials to have the Good Life. They are like the vapid yuppies of AMERICAN PSYCHO(horrible movie).

Now, one may argue that the very process of education will change a person. Surely, no matter how cynical or materialistic one may be, wouldn't he be moved, inspired, and transformed by the great knowledge that he absorbs from literature, history, psychology, humanities, and maybe even some courses on philosophy?
True enough, but then, is there a lasting impact of education on most people? Consider Billy Boy Clinton and Hillary Clinton. Two high-IQ people who read many books and attended top colleges. Then, why are they so shallow, cynical, scummy, vile, stupid, trashy, hideous, insipid, and despicable? What did they really learn from all those books and all those courses? Despite their high intelligence and credentials, why are they so lacking in ethics, conscience, virtue, balance, wisdom, and basic sanity? We would like to believe that people so smart who went to top schools and learned from the best professors and read many more books than we did would be people of genuine worth. But it seems the ONLY thing they ever cared about was egotism, vanity, privilege, fortune, and fame.

So, what does that tell you? Meritocracy in academics may, more or less, choose the brightest but far from the best. In the 50s and 60s, there was the idea that the best-and-the-brightest were going to do wonderful things for America. But even as many such people were indeed the brightest, they were not the best(in character). Robert McNamara was the poster-child of the divergence of brightness and best-ness. And after the fiasco of the Vietnam War, he came to realize this and felt bad for the rest of his life. Well, at least he had a conscience about it. But look around today. So many people who have high IQ, went to best schools, got the credentials, and were chosen for high positions turn out to be total scum. And even after they destroy everything, there is no sign of conscience. Look at the intellectuals and officials around Billy Boy Clinton and George Dubious Bush. Look at the brightest bulbs around Obama who helped him destroy nations around the world.

Some of these people went to the best schools. They got credentials and prestige. And yet, they act like gangsters, sociopaths, degenerates, and monsters. And someone explain how any sane, sensible, and moral person can endorse something like Homomania? Indeed, consider that Jews have the highest IQ and got the most education. And yet they are the biggest proponents of degenerate Homomania that conflates homo fecal penetration and tranny pud-cutting with the ‘rainbow’ that is then associated with cookies, sodas, and churches. Did Jews gain so much knowledge to peddle that kind of nonsense?

It may be that some people of ability will gravitate toward power out of ideals. They hope to gain power to do what is good for the people and nation. But the system has a way of choosing the talented-and-vapid over the talented-and-valid.
After all, one thing that becomes apparent to anyone seeking power is that the path is compromised. Even as doors open to people of ability and talent, they must also kiss a lot of ass, compromise their principles, keep their mouths shut, spout platitudes, and learn to go along. Such are necessary in any social setting, but it either turns idealists into cynics or exiles. As cynics, they do gain power eventually but come to care for nothing but the power. As exiles from the corrupt system, they maintain their ideals or integrity but they gain no power.
Generally speaking, the system seeks talent-and-vanity than talent-and-integrity. Those with real integrity have a serious problem rising up the ladder of power because they must remain silent, tell lies, or dirty their hands. They must play the game and keep their mouths shut. The must accede to the 'omerta' not unlike in GOODFELLAS.

In contrast, those who are talented and mainly into power for vanity don’t care if they must make compromises and even embrace corruption. They just want to be among the Winners and Players. And this may account as to why so much of the Deep State has genuine deep talent but is so utterly shallow when it comes to ideals, ethics, scruples, and principles. The filtering effect of power tends to keep out those with integrity in favor of those who will say or do anything to gain power. So, we have a world of Samantha Powers, John Boltons, John Yoos, James Comeys, Donald Rumsfelds, Hillary Clintons, Dick Cheneys, Victoria Nulands, and other such scumbags who aren’t troubled in the least by all the mess they cause around the world. They just want to be with the Winners and play the game of power.

But actually it’s even worse than that. These lowlife scum and sleazebags are so full of themselves and think themselves noble, honorable, brilliant, and amazing. Those obsessed with privilege, status, and power tend to be narcissistic by nature. Also, they conflate meritocracy & credentials with morality & credence. Because they went to fancy schools and got fancy degrees and rubbed shoulders with 'respectable' peoples around the world, they think they are the best of the best. And because they often wield power above the law, they feel as if they’re imbued with divine powers of higher wisdom and understanding. So, while the rest of us should be judged by the law, they are above the law because they are so... special. Just like the hands of gods can’t be hampered by the laws of mortals, the power of the Deep State cannot be hamstrung by the banal laws of the hoi polloi, the ‘little people’. While such a view might be deemed as arrogant and corrupt, those in the Deep State believe it is their duty to be above the law because their role is SO VERY IMPORTANT. So, they tell themselves that they must bend and twist the law for a ‘higher loyalty’.
Also, there is the mostly compliant and complementary media that works with the Deep State. And there are think-tanks and the academia made up of pretty much the same kind of people, and they are all into "If you scratch my back, I will scratch your back." So, even though most people in the Deep State are really shallow, venal, and vile goons, there is a vast cottage industry to shower them with praises and prizes. Sometimes, it can be downright ridiculous, as when Obama awarded Joe Biden with the Medal of Freedom. Imagine that, the president giving the vice-president the award.
Perhaps, there might be more of a balance IF both parties were equally represented in the deeply entrenched institutions of Washington D.C., but the fact is the DC and the Deep State are now an almost entirely a one-party system where most people are into clone-think, worshiping the same icons and idols. Notice that Pompeo in the Senate questioning was asked about his views on ‘gay marriage’. Homomania is sacrosanct in all areas of the Deep State because the Jewish top dogs made it so. Because Homomania is considered sacred, it is easy for any sleazebag in the Deep State to signal that he too is part of the holy crowd. He needs only to wave the homo flag. Or spout off platitudes about ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusion’ or yammer something about how they are inspired by MLK and etc.

So, the system is rigged not only to favor the talented-and-unscrupulous but also to make the unscrupulous feel that they are moral paragons and agents on the side of angels. Without such manipulative psycho-mechanisms, members of the Deep State will just feel utter cynicism as gangsters, crooks, and liars. Such people cannot maintain morale for long.
So, the secret of the Deep State is to attract those without scruples but to make them feel that they are the most scrupulous. We see these traits in sleazebags like John Brennan and James Comey. Both are hollow men, empty suits when it comes to principles. They are pathological liars and crooks who will pull anything to serve the interest of the Deep State. BUT they sincerely believe themselves to be on the side of angels BECAUSE the system showers praise on those who stick with the Official Narrative and Sacred Cows of the Current Year.
People like Edward Snowden cannot go very far in the System because they have too much of a conscience. Comey may claim to have a ‘higher loyalty’, but it really means his loyalty is to the Deep State. In contrast, Snowden had a deeper loyalty to an idea of justice. He spilled the beans on the Deep State and, as such, paid a huge price. The system praises the Comeys and McCabes of the world while trying to destroy people like Julian Assange and Edward Snowden who see the need for transparency in the Deep State of the lone superpower that, since the Cold War, has grown ever more arrogant, aggressive, and demented.

It is the logic of power. Power wants those of ability who will serve the system loyally. Power wants technocrats and commissars than truth-seekers and idealists. But the Power also needs to maintain the morale(if not true morality) of its servants by making them feel that they are on the right side of history.
It was the same in communist nations. The system obviously wanted yes-men and sycophants who would never ask too many questions. But the goons also had to be convinced that they were the most virtuous because, without such conceit, they might just grow awfully cynical and operate only as gangsters. The system wants dogs that believe in the nobility of service to the master.

This isn’t easy to do because the Power(of whatever nation or ideology) is always corrupt, compromised, and dirty. It is very difficult to get close to power and keep one’s principles. It may be that idealists hope to gain power to do good, but by the time they’ve come close to power, they’ve become the dirty Power. Imagine a Broom that is to be used to clean up society. But to get to the Broom, one has to wade through all the filth. By the time one finally gets to the center to wield the broom, one is as dirty as the former holders of the broom. And there is the realization that the broom itself is so dirty that using it will only spread than clean the filth.
This is how the Boomer generation idealists all turned out. It’s a sad story really. Those who loathed Richard Nixon became worse than Nixon. And their main reason for going after Donald Trump, no saint himself, is because Trump, despite his own sleaziness and filth, poses a threat to the ways of the Deep State, for which Hillary was like the Queen Bee to protect and serve. To the Deep State drones, Trump is like a bear that messes up the Deep State honeycombs. Trump’s victory sent out a massive signal among the drones to bring back Hillary and kill Trump. So, he’s been stung from many sectors of the Deep State.

Because the Power is so corrupt and compromised, the most effective means by which it instills drones with a sense of righteousness and holiness is by promoting symbolic morality, which is so much easier than real morality. Symbolic morality is characterized by icons, idols, mantras, rites, and rituals.
It was always easier to be a symbolic Christian than a real Christian. A real Christian had to seriously regard the teachings of Jesus, examine one’s own failings, sincerely seek redemption, and seek personal salvation in the eyes of God. In contrast, a symbolic Christian merely needed to wear a Crucifix, hold a rosary, say a bunch of ‘Hail Mary’s, and attend certain services. Michael Corleone is no real Christian in THE GODFATHER, but he is a good symbolic Christian who donates generously to the Catholic Church and attends the ritual that makes him godfather to his sister’s child. Both the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church came to favor symbolic Christianity over real Christianity, which found new hope with Protestantism, which, however, also succumbed to new concoctions of rituals and symbolism... or just grew tired because how can spiritual movement define itself as a ‘protest’ forever when it’s become so deeply entrenched in the Order and the Power.

Anyway, symbolism means never having to say you’re sorry. So, never mind if you were one of the Teutonic Knights in Russia or Crusaders in the Holy Land. Never mind all the brutality and violence you carried out. Never mind all the un- or anti-Christian acts you’ve committed. As long as you stick to symbolic Christianity, you can tell yourself that you carried out the will of God. After all, your battle shield had a sign of the Cross. And before charging into battle, you knelt and held your sword like a Cross and prayed to God. You might have even sung a hymn with other warriors. And after sacking the city and raping women and killing children, you may have offered a prayer to God in a Church. Thus, by making the symbolic gestures, you can feel blessed and righteous in your violence. And you can conveniently forget that so much of what you did went against REAL CHRISTIAN teachings.
This is why symbolism is so appealing. Consider the studio executive in HAIL CAESAR! by the Coen Brothers.

In many ways, he acts like a gangster and henchman. He is ruthless, cunning, and not above using bribes and blackmail to keep people silent. He’s about making the system run smoothly as possible. And yet, he feels himself to be a good man. Why? He goes to Church and make confessions before a priest. Of course, it’s about trivial stuff like his failure to stop smoking, but the rituals makes him feel as a man of God.

The Deep State is secular but paves over its gangsterism, corruption, and venality with its own version of Symbolic Morality. Gee, the New and Improved FBI must be noble because its agents must make a pledge to the MLK statue. James Comey thinks himself a goody-good man because he compares himself to the attorney in TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. And he must be a goody-good man because Obama, the historic black president, showered him with praise. It’s all symbolism. Never mind Obama the real guy is a sleazebag who shilled for Jews to bail out Wall Street and to destroy nations hated by Jews or Israel. He has magical aura because of the symbolism of being the ‘clean cut black guy’ and the ‘historic first black president’. So, never mind what he really is. Just fixate on what he symbolizes. He’s supposed to represent the fulfillment of the Dream that was cut short by the death of JFK, Malcolm X, RFK, and MLK. He’s supposed to be all those things, with a touch of Sidney Poitier-ness. In reality, what was Obama but a punk? As president, what was his idea of moral progress? Worship of homos and trannies. And what was his foreign policy? The destruction of nations at the behest of Judeo-Nazis.
We’ve heard the counterculture mythology many times that the Vietnam War and the Cold War could have been averted IF John F. Kennedy, MLK, and RFK had not been killed by the evil Deep State. How ironic that Obama, the fulfillment of the Dream, started a ‘new cold war’ with Russia, spread wars all over the Middle East, pulled off a coup in Ukraine, and became a compliant favorite of the Deep State. But never mind all that. Just focus on the symbolism.

The emptiness of symbolic morality can be seen in James Comey’s wife. She was a Hillary supporter and was so very angry over Hillary’s loss because she so badly wanted a ‘first woman president’. Again, it’s symbolic morality over real morality. Never mind what Hillary Clinton really did as Secretary of State. She acted like a gangster and did the bidding of the EOJ(the Empire of Judea) to destroy Libya and spread terror and war all over the Middle East. Millions of people had their lives destroyed as a result. Never mind her long history of corruption. Never mind her total lack of scruples. Never mind her arrogance, contempt, and vileness. The only thing that matters to Comey’s vapid, shallow, and disgusting wife is that Hillary would have been the ‘first woman president’. So, her symbolism trumps all other considerations.

This is how PC operates. It has no use for real morality or truth. Rather, it icon-izes or idolizes certain groups as magical, special, or deserving. So, if the military promotes a black woman to the rank of general, that must be good because of its symbolism. Never mind if she really deserved the title or if she, along with everyone else, is being used to fight immoral Wars for Israel. Or consider how we were supposed to praise Trump's decision to lob missiles into Syria in 2017 because a female naval officer was involved in the operation. PC symbolic morality. A feminist soldier pushed a button, so it must have been a blessed act.

Or, never mind how corrupt and sick the Deep State is. Hey, it appointed some holy homo to some important position. It is a game played by both sides. So, the vile GOP goes for the symbolic morality of being the best friend of Israel. Since Jews are supposedly the Holy Holocaust People and Israel is the Holy Land promised to Jews, the GOP is supposedly righteous and moral whenever it is associated with the symbolism of Jewishness. When morality shifts from a matter of personal responsibility and individual conscience to rites and rituals of symbolic signaling, society becomes as corrupt as when the Catholic Church was selling ‘indulgences’. Once sin was altered from a reality to a ‘symbol’, it could be bought and sold, like commodities in a stock market. (It is all the more dangerous today because the most powerful group in the US, the Jews, cannot be touched. In contrast, while past Wasp elites held much pride and prestige, they were not seen as holy, and therefore, it was fair game to notice their power and call foul on it. This had a restraining and reforming effect. But try to speak truth to Jews, blacks, and Homos. It'd be like sacrilege since they are the Holy Three.)

James Comey is a sleazebag but thinks himself so holy-shmoly because the ‘historic black president’ anointed him. And his wife thinks she’s such a noble person because she so passionately wanted a ‘first woman president’. Never mind that they are preening and privileged members of a vile, venal, mendacious, and murderous community that concocts policies to turn the world upside down at the behest of Judeo-Nazis and soulless corporations, the bottom line of which is more profits-at-any-cost. As long as they got the Proper Symbolism, they don't care. They think they own goody-goodness.

We have a pretty effective way of meritocracy. Despite the problems of Affirmative Action, for the most part the System does a pretty effective job of selecting and pooling the best in talent. But it has done an atrocious job of favoring the ethical-talented over unethical-talented. If anything, the Power tends to push away anyone with any integrity, honesty, and true morality based on facts. Political Correctness or PC has made this problem much worse. Though ostensibly an agent of justice, its dogmatic formula of predetermined Right and Wrong means that everyone just stick to the script, not unlike in Communist systems where people could not question the ‘scientific’ and ‘moral’ infallibility of Marxism-Leninism itself.
PC makes it very difficult for anyone in the academia, media, and government to speak honestly about Jewish Power, black pathology & crime, homo degeneracy, and female hysteria. PC morality is essentially symbolism-centered around icon-ized identities of holy victimhood. So, Jews are eternal victims of Holocaust. Blacks are sacred victims of slavery, and MLK is bigger than God and Jesus. Homos are angels, and if you say otherwise, you are a ‘homophobe’. And women, especially white women, are eternal victims of Evil White Men like Haven Monahan and must be protected from evil white men by... noble black man. ROTFL.

Reality is very different from the Sacro-Narrative and the Grand Delusion, but the power of symbolism can be such that it makes people hallucinate False Realities. Consider the symbolic power of the TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD narrative. America has changed so much since the 1950s, but we are still supposed to believe that redemptive white folks must do something to save poor helpless Negroes from the KKK lynchmob. While we live in the reality of the 21st century when so many white folks are suffering and being physically attacked by blacks, our sense of reality comes from Jewish-controlled TV and movies that define hyper-reality for us. Also, the False Reality of TV trespasses into our living room and smuggles PC symbolism into our brains while robbing us of our critical faculties, especially as TV shows rely as much on manipulative use of music and other visceral effects.

Thus, we have a world where meritocracy is rewarded ONLY IF it is without integrity. Consider journalism. What is the chance of anyone being hired IF he were to raise truly provocative questions about what is really going on? To work in journalism, one has to adhere to the PC rules of the Holy Three: Jews, Negroes, and Homos. (Women are holy ONLY IF they can be construed as victims of the Evil White Male, the Haven Monahans of the World.) The fact that David Reich had to close his book on DNA and racial differences with so much PC tripe goes to show that daring to speak the truth is like walking through a minefield. One wrong word, and you can be blown away and ruined forever.
This is really an immoral war on truth and liberty, but PC is seen as moral because of its symbolism. Once certain groups have been ‘sacralized’, facts and reason no longer matter. They are forever haloed in association with a certain event or condition in past history. So, Jews are Holocaust People no matter what they do. Even a black thug-rapist is a Holy Slave person. Even ‘hate hoaxes’ aren’t so bad IF in the service of spreading the message about the Holy Three. It’s like the Catholic Church wink-wink tolerated all those phony ‘miracles’ on grounds that they boosted hope among the faithful. 'Hate Hoaxes' might as well be called 'hate miracles'.

PC is really a form of virtue-vanity and, as such, is about empty calories. Indeed, fake virtue is worse than no virtue because it lulls us into thinking we do have virtue. But look at the modern world remade by the false virtue of PC. There is moral and cultural cancer all around resulting from the radical and mindless worship of everything Jewish, black, or homo OR with anything associated with nonsensical sanctimony about ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusion’, which in reality, comes down to the crazy notion that all nations except Israel should welcome Invasion and Replacement by hordes of foreigners who come to leech off the wealth. Unless we can create a New Reality that combines meritocracy of ability with ‘ethicracy’ of truth and reason(backed up by courage and spine), there is no hope for the future.