David Brooks on "Getting In"

David Brooks has a wonderful review in the Sunday New York Times in which he faces head-on some major developments of twentieth century American culture that, while blatantly obvious, could not until now be discussed in polite company. Basically, he's writing about the rise of the "meritocracy" that displaced the WASP elite after WWII. He notes:

1) the dominant role played by Jews in promoting this shift in values.

For the Jews were the vanguard of a social movement that over the course of the 20th century transformed the American university system and the nature of the American elite.

2) universities are not neutral arbiters -- they adopt positions that tend to be self-serving

[A]t any given moment the universities tend to gravitate toward the definition of merit that best helps them preserve their status as prestigious, rich and powerful institutions.

3) the new "meritocratic" elite is consciously attempting to become self-perpetuating.

As time goes by, it becomes more and more clear that the meritocrats are doing exactly what the WASPS did, rigging admissions criteria to favor the qualities they and their children are most likely to possess.

One important omission in Brooks' discussion is the recent challenge to the "meritocracy" on the part of black and hispanic minorities by way of affirmative action programs.

A few of random thoughts.

Much of the overt hatred of Dubya is rooted in the "meritocrats" disdain for their old WASP antagonists.

The Harriet Miers nomination ripped the scab off these old animosities and exposed a number of conservative pundits as meritocratic bigots.

I had once hoped that Nick Lehman's book, The Big Test, would stimulate a national debate over the benefits and limitations of meritocracy, but it didn't happen then. Maybe Brooks' article, appearing in the NYT will do it.

Brooks notes expressions of disapproval by WASPS regarding the number of Jews in elite institutions half a century and more ago. I have heard similar comments from the mouths of meritocrats in recent decades with regard to the number of minority students in their classes.

RELATED:

The Financial Times Deutschland, discussing the French riots, notes that France has a problem similar to that discussed by Brooks -- that of a self-perpetuating credentialed "meritocratic" elite.

The national education system purports to provide equal chances for all but in reality cements inequality. The elite universities churn out children from the same families into leading positions of industry and the civil service while the system doesn't provide alternative education routes for immigrants. People who take vocational training without attending university are still regarded as second class citizens.

Read it here.