ENGLAND EXPECTS.3/8 The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World, by Adrian Wooldridge Hardcover
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 13 August 2023
⏱️ 11 minutes
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ENGLAND EXPECTS.3/8 The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World, by Adrian Wooldridge Hardcover
https://www.amazon.com/Aristocracy-Talent-Meritocracy-Modern-World/dp/1510768610/ref=sr_1_2?qid=1658009977&refinements=p_27%3AAdrian+Wooldridge&s=books&sr=1-2
The Times (UK) book of the year! Meritocracy: the idea that people should be advanced according to their talents rather than their birth. While this initially seemed like a novel concept, by the end of the twentieth century it had become the world's ruling ideology. How did this happen, and why is meritocracy now under attack from both right and left?
In The Aristocracy of Talent, the esteemed journalist and historian Adrian Wooldridge traces the history of meritocracy forged by the politicians and officials who introduced the revolutionary principle of open competition, the psychologists who devised methods for measuring natural mental abilities, and the educationalists who built ladders of educational opportunity. He looks outside western cultures and shows what transformative effects it has had everywhere it has been adopted, especially once women were brought into the meritocratic system.
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| 0:00.0 | This is CBSI in the World, I'm John Bachelorette, and Adrian Waldrich, who is |
| 0:08.2 | badgered at the Economist is the author, Adrian Waldrich, of the aristocracy of talent, |
| 0:13.4 | how meritocracy made the world. |
| 0:15.8 | And we've moved through 2500 years of history, right up to the 19th century now, I do not |
| 0:21.9 | want to leave out Plato, however, I didn't have a moment to include him, but Plato writes |
| 0:27.4 | a republic. |
| 0:29.1 | And in the republic, there are doubts about democracy, doubts about whether you can trust |
| 0:34.4 | people to know what's best for them, because after all, they're working very hard, and |
| 0:38.7 | they live short lives, doubts also about whether democracy chooses the best leader, doubts |
| 0:44.5 | also about whether you're ever going to follow a course of action that is rewarded anywhere |
| 0:51.8 | in this lifetime. |
| 0:53.9 | That is in the minds of the men and women of the 19th century, as we come to, not the |
| 0:59.7 | French Revolution, but the British interpretation of the French Revolution, and Adrian identifies |
| 1:05.9 | two schools of thought in Britain, in the United Kingdom, in the 19th century that are |
| 1:13.0 | important to explore, because they inform how the United States responds as well to the |
| 1:17.6 | search for brains, for talent. |
| 1:20.8 | One is the School of Utilitarians, the greatest number for the greatest good. |
| 1:25.2 | The other is the School of Economists, which is self-interest. |
| 1:30.4 | Adrian, I can't choose between them, and I don't think Britain did either, is that correct? |
| 1:35.8 | Absolutely, in some ways they sort of supplement each other, because the people like Adam Smith |
| 1:43.0 | and the great founders of modern economics are sort of utilitarians, and they're taking |
| 1:49.5 | part of the utilitarian philosophy, and using it to inform their arguments, and of course |
... |
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