“I listened to today’s episode with Fred deBoer and was struck by the extent to which his views jibe with people like Robert Putnam or Charles Murray. It also prompted me to go back to listen to the episode about meritocracy with Michael Sandel. I think Yascha was right to press him about the alternative to meritocracy. Sandel never did offer a good answer on how we are to allocate prestigious positions like a surgical residency without using merit. I cannot imagine Sandel truly believes that we should allocate, say, endowed Professorships at Harvard Law School on the basis of a lottery system. Finally, his concept that meritocratic winners should have humility sounds right to me and echoes a very old virtue-noblesse oblige.
I cannot say enough about Persuasion and this podcast. Great work.”
Salubrious Spring via Apple Podcasts ·
United States of America ·
01/03/21