The Meritocracy Watch

I very recently commented on the origin of the laughable term "meritocracy," how it was coined as satire, but adopted quite seriously. Since then, just like the phenomenon of noticing a specific model of car once you buy one yourself, I keep seeing the term pop up.

So why not track that?

The book containing the word origin nugget had a lot of bad stuff to say about Google and its lack of diversity. Maybe it's the press riding the book's rising popularity, or maybe author Wachter-Boettcher (say those three words three times fast!) was on to something already on the rise; whatever the case, Google's troubles are getting more press. Concerning diversity training, stuff like this happened:

It began subtly. Coworkers peppered mailing lists and company town halls with questions: What about meritocracy? Isn’t improving diversity lowering the bar? What about viewpoint diversity? Doesn’t this exclude white men?

(I bolded the stupid.)

Perhaps that's where diversity training should begin, by pointing out the original meaning of the M Word, how it is a silly, silly notion that should be used to point out silly, silly people as they mouth that word with an evangelical seriousness, all in an attempt to mask their misgivings about their continued good fortune.

PS. About this entry's title: my neighbor until recently ran a little magazine, where he contributed a column in every issue titled "The Stupidity Watch." Unironic users of the M Word should know that.