{"id":11675,"date":"2011-04-25T12:00:38","date_gmt":"2011-04-25T11:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=11675"},"modified":"2011-04-18T19:17:52","modified_gmt":"2011-04-18T18:17:52","slug":"meritocracy-a-myth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2011\/04\/meritocracy-a-myth\/","title":{"rendered":"Meritocracy: A Myth?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oxbridge, Ivy League and Southasia<\/em><\/p>\n

Well, if you specialize in the study of education (and educational institutions) from a sociological perspective, not just how one holds the chalk or manages a class, not that these things don\u2019t deserve to be studied, meritocracy as we know is a complete farce if it is not accompanied by a serious analysis of race\/ethnicity, class and sex.<\/p>\n

It tickles me each time I hear some elitist and poshly-schooled friends brag about his or her own \u2018world class\u2019 education and implicit belief in his or her own \u2018individual\u2019 brilliance.<\/p>\n

How many of us believe we are Marxes, Einsteins, Darwins, etc., (that is, geniuses) anyway? Darwin never had to work for money, ever in his life as he lived off his rich father. Even pro-proletariat Marx was largely supported by Engels whose wealthy German industrialist father owned cotton farms in Manchester and elsewhere: talk about class.<\/p>\n

A lot of my Burmese compatriots often talk admiringly about world class education in the West. And the neighbourhood university, namely National University of Singapore, is one of the often-talked about places. All the rankings and ratings get their attention. The news of Yale-NUS building a new liberal arts college in the city-state which is envisaged as \u2018the model\u2019 for Asia is just the kind of excitement among the upwardly mobile whose quality of thought declines as they ascend the global ladder of power, wealth and privileges.<\/p>\n

Sadly, beneath the surface of the institutional prestige and world class standing lies centuries of ugly histories, and no less ugly present.<\/p>\n

If you are anti-imperialist, \u2018Third Worldist\u2019 type \u2013 like I unapologetically am – it may warm your heart to know that historically Oxford produced the highest number of folks who gave the rest of the world \u2018the British Empire\u2019, which among other things grew opium in India for export to China \u2013 as a brilliant economic policy to address the Raj\u2019s trade deficit. (Cambridge was the runner up.)<\/p>\n

Eighty-nine percent (that\u2019s too close to 90%!) of Oxford student body is made up of upper and middle classes. Cambridge is behind only by 2% at 87%. \u00a0These places are first and foremost about social exclusion on the basis of class, sex and ethnicity\/race. Let alone share their \u2018playgrounds and boat-houses\u2019 among general student populations, \u2013 not to mention the proverbial masses and town kids \u2014 these institutions set up hierarchies even within the universities, with each college literally enclosed, self-centred and generally inaccessible, staying true to their Medieval origins. They are in effect citadels of power, prestige, and privileges. They used to run the British Raj and they now run Britain.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t tell me your class and your wealth and your skin don\u2019t play a role in how you got into these power- and wealth-reproducing institutions.<\/p>\n

These are not just institutions deeply rooted in the imperialism of the past, but neo-imperialisms of \u2018development aid\u2019, \u2018liberal interventionism\u2019, and arms trade.<\/p>\n

Look across the Atlantic from here \u2013 you\u2019ll find Harvard Law, the school built on the proceeds of a weekend slave auction by a wealthy American slave-owner. The most influential and strategically placed, it produces an overwhelming number of corporate lawyers who write laws for their corporate \u2018citizens\u2019. Only in such an unashamedly and pathologically Capitalist country as the United States such a legal concept and reality as \u2018corporations as legal persons\u2019 exist with all the rights and privileges reserved for humans.<\/p>\n

The iconoclastic Gore Vidal once said on a BBC interview that first class corporate lawyers run \u2018democracy in America\u2019 while corporate \u2018donors\u2019 staff Congress with lesser ones.<\/p>\n

Athenian democracy started out as a political process for property-and slave-owning white men. It maintained its honourable tradition in \u2018America\u2019 \u2014 Canada, Mexico, the whole of Latin America, and Central America could potentially sue the Americans for the monopoly over the continent-wide name \u2014 after 1776. In the second decade of the Gregorian 21st century, in its most advanced stage, the Athenian democracy appears to have ended up serving only the corporations.<\/p>\n

History has ended here. One dollar, one vote \u2014 IMF-style.<\/p>\n

Often our own Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is talked about as \u2018Oxford-educated\u2019 as if her Oxford education turned her into who she is and what she is made of. As a matter of fact, it was\/is her (self-acknowledged) awareness of her parents\u2019 exemplary lives as citizens that was\/is her source of inspiration.<\/p>\n

In our part of the world, we have no shortages of Oxbridge-types, and Ivy Leaguers. The late Indira Gandhi (Nehru\u2019s daughter), the one who imposed draconian emergency rules, and the current PM Manmohan Singh, who heads one of the world\u2019s most corrupt State, were Oxonian; Thailand (effectively a military-business-feudal complex) has many Oxbridge-products \u2014 the current Etonian PM is only the figurehead; and the ruling elite of Singapore with its high belief on social engineering (and eugenic) were trained in Oxbridge as well.<\/p>\n

We are often exhorted to believe that \u2018the great unwashed\u2019 would be better off if they lived under these poshly-schooled leaders in the false hope that these men and women born with silver spoons in their mouth will discharge their \u2018noble obligations.\u2019<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t hold your breath.<\/p>\n

Popular participation and public well-being are not part of their education, nor of their class consciousness, the rhetoric to the contrary notwithstanding.<\/p>\n

In response to \u2018A social revolution has been accomplished by harnessing schools and universities to the task of sieving people according to education\u2019s narrow band of values.\u2019
\n\u2013 Michael Young, author of The Rise of Meritocracy (1958), at http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/politics\/2001\/jun\/29\/comment<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

P.S. I wouldn\u2019t be able to get on-line and type this diatribe if it weren\u2019t for the fact that my parents came from a particular class\/professional and educational background. One of my best friends in 5th grade in Mandalay who peer-taught me a few academic things had to drop out after 5th grade and go to work at his uncle\u2019s shop because his parents could no longer afford to keep him in school. The thoughts of my 11 year old friend keep me humble and grounded each time my ego gets bloated.<\/p>\n

______________________<\/p>\n

Maung<\/em> <\/strong>Zarni (m.zarni@lse.ac.uk) is a member of TRANSCEND and a Research Fellow on Burma at LSE Global Governance.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you are anti-imperialist, \u2018Third Worldist\u2019 type \u2013 like I unapologetically am – it may warm your heart to know that historically Oxford produced the highest number of folks who gave the rest of the world \u2018the British Empire\u2019, which among other things grew opium in India for export to China \u2013 as a brilliant economic policy to address the Raj\u2019s trade deficit. (Cambridge was the runner up). Often our own Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is talked about as \u2018Oxford-educated\u2019 as if her Oxford education turned her into who she is and what she is made of. As a matter of fact, it was\/is her (self-acknowledged) awareness of her parents\u2019 exemplary lives as citizens that was\/is her source of inspiration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-transcend-members"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11675\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}