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CMP

Senior Member
Registered Member
You can be the founder of the world's first 4 trillion dollar company, be a major linchpin in the US's comprehensive technology strategy, be a living embodiment of the American dream going from working at Deny's in high school to being a top tier CEO, and still be told by the powers that be to "know your place."

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We already knew that would be the case. The real question is what will Jensen do.
 

jiajia99

Junior Member
Registered Member
Easy to say shit, very hard to actually prove that they means what they say. Really everyone knows that the leadership of the EU and Japan are a bunch to cucks so ultimately it’s either put up or STFU because this saying crap and doing nothing routine is getting old
 

TPenglake

Junior Member
Registered Member
Modern Western political and philosophical tradition traces its lineage back to the times of the Greek and Roman civilizations much more than from the feudal period of Dark Age / Middle Age Europe. It is extremely naive to think that over several thousand years of human history, only the Chinese civilization realized the value of meritocracy. The fundamental challenge faced by any society or state is how to maintain a functional meritocracy over successive generations, as over time, a meritocracy naturally devolves into a plutocracy or some form of aristocracy. If you study any of the great Chinese dynasties (Han, Tang, Song, Ming), you see that every dynasty begins with land/wealth redistribution and centralization of power. Over time, some families, along with certain factions / groups that may vary depending on the dynasty, but generally consisting of eunuchs, consort families, military governors, wealth merchant families etc, will gain increasing amounts of wealth/land and power over successive generations. Near the end of the dynasty, you have wealth/power concentrated in the hands of these families/groups and away from the state and the people. These families/groups will then focus their attention and efforts at struggling with one another to further increase their own wealth and power, to the detriment of the rest of society and the state. Ultimately, the dynasty collapses and the cycle starts anew.
There is a difference based on what your parameters of "meritocracy" are. If its simply recognizing someone for their talents and giving them a job commensurate to their talent, then every society in the world had meritocracy and China was not unique. Any general on the field can recognize a brave soldier and give them an officership, after which they rise through the ranks and likewise any court official can recognize a servant is sharper than they look and teach them to read/write, after which they begin their ascension through the court. What set China apart from the rest of the world was precisely its examination system.

My history on classical Greece is hazy, but for Rome people only had two avenues to reach a position of power outside of being born into it. It was either joining the military or being sponsored by a member of the nobility, ie. patronage. So yes, in essence "meritocracy" was practiced, but the nobility were the ones having final say on who would rise unless you were charismatic enough as a military leader to lead your own coup.

What set China apart from Rome during periods of dynastic collapse or barbarian conquest, was that by basing promotion on the examinations and creating a class of bureacrats, meritocracy was institutionalized. Successive empires after Western Rome collapsed claimed to the be the new Rome, but never emulated its system succesfully. When a successive dynasty overtook the previous or if the barbarians after finishing their conquest settled down to rule, they had a complete guidebook already laid out for them on how to administer the realm.
 
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