Dissecting The Myths Of Merit And Meritocracy PART-IX

By Narendra Kumar Arya 15 January, 2013 

Countercurrents.org:

Is Merit Propaganda?

So Merit in popular domains closely identified with ethnicity and associative intelligence, defined in a recent effort by Lenivson and Sadovnik as “most common definition of meritocracy conceptualizes merit in terms tested competency and ability, and most likely as measured by IQ or standardized achievement tests." 15 Is it just propaganda of the incumbent elite?

“Propaganda” has not always been so difficult to define. The English word derives from a Latin term that originally referred to a committee of Cardinals, or Congregation of Propaganda, established by Pope Gregory XV in 1622 to propagate Roman Catholicism. The word was later extended to designate “any association, systematic scheme, or concerted movement for the propagation of a particular doctrine or practice” ( OED ). But with the professionalization of advertising in the late nineteenth century, and the emergence of public relations specialists and the rapid development of mass media in the twentieth century, “propaganda” became increasingly difficult to pin down. Although the word began to acquire some negative connotations over the nineteenth century owing to government distrust of secret organizations designed to sway public opinion, the OED  does not record until 1908 the now-common definition of “propaganda” as tendentious persuasion by interested parties. At that time, with so much of modern society dependent on the rapid exchange of information, “propaganda” usually denoted persuasive information or mere boosterism. The information propagated might come from interested sources, but its integrity or reliability was not necessarily suspected. That would change over the first half of the twentieth century, when two world wars helped link “propaganda” to lies and deception without completely erasing the notion that “to persuade” might simply mean “to inform.” 16

Propaganda is a huge industry says Chomsky while referring exclusively to corporate one but that relates to other as well which employs a wide array of instruments to manipulate ‘minds'- entertainment industry, television, radio, newspapers and magazines, school curriculum etc. Edward Barneys a Cambridge liberal's ‘Propaganda' is a sort of bible for this genre asserting the point that “conscious manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is the central feature of democratic societies”…”we have the means to carry this out, the means to regiment peoples mind as efficiently as armies regiment their bodies. And we must do this .First of all; it's the essential feature of democracy. But also ( as foot note) it's the way to maintain power structures and authority structures ad wealth , and so on, roughly the way it is…” 17

A Tail of Three Capitalist Sisters

We are inmates of an excessively economic world. The present system sees that its dependence on merit is must for survival of three sisters of productivity, efficiency and effectiveness, almost impeccable for success of any system—economic, corporate, social, political or else. There is almost infinite chord of sequential notions based on absurdity, bias and highly relative relevance and meanings which form a close connection with the concept of merit, we have seen the case of intelligence, such more are success, achievement, productivity etc. The compulsion of limits and lust for profuse profits from enterprises operated by elite propel them to come with crazy anti-people notions and a hired creed of experts, knowledgeable guys, theoreticians nickname as think tanks just do the job, and garb them in pseudo-democratic social terminology. Societies where people are often neglected to the last rungs of depravity ,despite the fact being that everything is done in their name only. “Getting ahead is ostensibly based on individual merit, which is generally viewed as a combination of factors including innate abilities, working hard, having the right attitude, and having high moral character and integrity. Americans not only tend to think that is how the system should work, but most Americans also think that is how the system does work” 18

Casteism & Nepotism in Politics, Corporate and Bureaucracy: Is It Merit?

Indian society's crux of operation hinges upon caste consciousness .This gives life to tendencies of nepotism, casteism, family inheritance and other ethnic bonds. Our institutional- political, corporate, and bureaucratic fabric is the nudist version of such psyche and materialism. The study conducted to assure the caste structure of Indian corporate board rooms is clearly indicative of this. Big business houses said to be operating on none but principles of professional merit, excellence, and efficiency. But do they really follow these principles? Even in pre-independence era Anti-Brahmanism movements had their origin in dissatisfaction over over-occupancy of Brahmins in bureaucracy. “According to a British survey in 1912, though Brahmins represented only 3.2 percent of the male population of Tamil Nadu, they held 83.3 percent of the subjudgeships (immediately under British personnel), 55 percent of the deputy collectorships and 72.6 percent of the district administrative posts. 67% percent of those receiving bachelor degrees from The Madras University were Brahmins. Of those receiving Law degrees Brahmins outnumbered all non-Brahmin Hindus 3.5 to 1 and Brahmins receiving teaching licentiates outnumbered non-Brahmin Hindus by more than 6.5 to 1.” 19 We the people of India have seen spell-bound caste show how in a constitutionally secular and socially-just state nine of the twelve Prime Ministers have been Brahmin. “In the IAS, Brahmins still rule. From the senior-most bureaucrat in the central government to the officials who advise the prime minister, bureaucrats from the community are continuing with a tradition many say they were born into. According to one, the dominance of Brahmins can be traced back to the British who recruited literate Indians in lower positions of administration…. A quick head-count reveals that right from the present cabinet secretary to other key positions like secretary, RAW, defence research and development, agriculture and cooperation, economic affairs, revenue and legal affairs, Brahmins hold key jobs. As many as 37 top officials in the list of secretaries and officers of equivalent rank in the present administrative set-up are Brahmins. Going by figures quoted by the Backward Classes Commission, Brahmins account for 37.17 per cent of the bureaucracy. Other forward castes too constitute a substantial chunk.”... “Brahmin chief justices between 1950 to 2000: 47%, Associate justices between 1950-2000: 40%” 20 Not just Brahmins but even Shudra caste like dominant Jats may also create the caste concentration. The disproportionate occupancy at crucial levels in contemporary Haryana is an ideal example. 21 That is why prominent social scientist Gail Omvedt is compelled to render her observation that “Employment is only partly the result of merit even in examinations and interviews; it has a large element of ``influence''. And for those trying to run businesses, even very tiny ones, the role of influence and access to power is even greater. ” 22

“The empirical results show that caste diversity is non-existent in the Indian corporate sector and nearly 65% of the Indian corporate board members are from one caste group – the forward caste – indicating that it is a small and closed world. In the corporate world, social networking plays an important role. Still, Indian corporate boards be-long to the “old boys club” based on caste affiliation rather than on other considerations (like merit or experience).” 23

In his fascinating study on extant of nuptial spoil system in India, Patrick French in his ‘India: A Portrait 'spotlights the fact that a shocking 100% of Indian MPs under the age of 30 are hereditary, Two-thirds of Indian MPs under the age of 40 are from political families, Less than 10% of MPs over the age of 70 are hereditary,27 MPs are classified as ‘hyper hereditary', and 19 of them are in the Congress party. By hyper-hereditary, we mean that they have multiple family connections, and several family members who have made a career out of politics. 24 Perhaps, this is the merit that most of the supporters of merit desire to protect and let flourish!

In our patriarchal Indian society the symbols of feminist power, 69.5% of women MPs came into politics through family connections. This trend, without any major change in psyche of society happened, is going to be funny and tragical at the same time, when after the 108th Constitution Amendment with 33 per cent of seats in national and state-elected bodies for women is implemented, this number is likely to go upward and make mockery of merit.

“The Indian upper class, like royalty, is sexually transmitted. Politics, business, mainstream cinema and other occupations where talent is subordinate to lineage are dominated by family cartels, who plant their own over the rest. The Indian elite are a system where there is a 100 percent reservation for its own genetic material. And the most underrated joke in the country is when this class joins the middle class in lamenting reservations for the poorest Indians from the “backward” castes in colleges and jobs.” 25 The case of Regional parties is equally blemished , as they are centered around any particular charismatic figure