Do you also have the feeling many people in high positions/power don't actually deserve to be there?

[noname223]

I don't believe in meritocracy. I am not sure whether it is a critique at politicians. I don't want that this thread becomes too political. One side note though: I think being a politician is a very unthankful job. The people ruin their private life, health, are often lonely, some take drugs. And especially local politicians have to deal with many threats and harrassment. Still I think in the US more than Germany there is a lot corruption. There are dynasties and the people have not earned their position often. They are born into something. Maybe they have good genes. But this is not the same as earning it.

I know one should not question experts too much as a layman. But my experience with therapists is. The people in high positions are often not the best. I once had a lecturer for college students as therapist. She was by far the worst therapist I ever had. Whereas I met a young intelligent psychology student with a lot of mental issues. I am not sure whether she actually was able to overcome her issues a long time it did not look like that. But I had the feeling she got my problems more than two therapists with whom I had therapy.

Many people are fakers. I probably belong to them. I had the feeling with these two therapists. They become lazy once they are in such a position. They are not really motivated to learn new things. And they are less flexible in their thinking.

I met a lot of gifted mentally ill people. And some will never be able to work a normal job. And of course also not in the profession they are actually good in. Mental illness can be pretty nasty and stop our us from our potentials. I met a therapist who had the opinion the potential of a human being is the most important thing. And the life quality is less important, strive for your goals even if you are mentally ill. Tbh if I went that route I would already be dead. I think good advice is difficult in my case though. It is sad to see when gifted people cannot achieve their goals. But in the end life quality is more important in my opinion.

Many experts in media are fakers. Many public intellectuals are fakers. And many loudmouths on Youtube or social media are (intellectual) fakers. Many people have strong opinions also in fields they are not experts in. Attention and hot takes are a currency in this world. The world is not actually about the truth. The internet is full of dangerous half truth. The smartest people don't have a post count of several thousand posts and lecture others on every single topic. There are really smart people out there who don't talk much.

 

[enjoytheride]

I too am disappointed with meritocracy as it seems to only deliver its promise partially or at times not at all. Unfortunately, politicians are not selected through testing of their knowledge and abilities. They are voted into office by a majority of voters who favour them. That's very different from having a carpenter fix something in your home and then recommending him to your neighbours ("voting" for him).

I agree with you that quality of life is more important, and preserving one's dignity as well. In his Enchiridion, Epictetus says it like this:

Is anyone preferred before you at an entertainment, or in courtesies, or in confidential intercourse? If these things are good, you ought to rejoice that he has them; and if they are evil, do not be grieved that you have them not. And remember that you cannot be permitted to rival others in externals without using the same means to obtain them. (...)

So, in the present case, you have not been invited to such a person's entertainment because you have not paid him the price for which a supper is sold. It is sold for praise; it is sold for attendance. Give him, then, the value if it be for your advantage. But if you would at the same time not pay the one, and yet receive the other, you are unreasonable and foolish. Have you nothing, then, in place of the supper? Yes, indeed, you have-not to praise him whom you do not like to praise; not to bear the insolence of his lackeys.

Source: link

This is to say that people in higher position many times pay a price to reach it that you and I are probably not willing to pay. This includes getting involved in petty intra and inter-party rivalry, dirty tricks, lies, pretending, demagogy, etc. The price may be one's dignity, because in overcompetitive environments a race to the bottom is often what happens.

Not that Epictetus justifies it being the way it is. I don't think so. I think he rather helps us understand why not to grieve too much, as we may have lost something by not stepping on others while desperately and blindly climbing the social ladder. But in not doing so we have preserved something that is important for us. So in actuality our loss is in the realm of perception and that subjective thing called social status, not in reality.

I wish mainly the virtuous would be into politics. But my experience tells me that they get disgusted by it when they see how others who are already there and others who want to get there behave. And my experience tells me that they also get mobbed and swept away by ruthless manipulators greedy for power for its own sake.

 

[missedmybus]

It's called failing upwards and it's also having to deal with old people in a faster evolving society.

They shut down the whole society to save a few people with diseases and old age, rather than shutting them in during covid. That is the same mentality.

Edit: you can philosophise and stoic whatever you want but reality is: boomers outnumber the rest so until they to go extinct you willel have to deal with this

 

[noname223]

It's called failing upwards and it's also having to deal with old people in a faster evolving society.

They shut down the whole society to save a few people with diseases and old age, rather than shutting them in during covid. That is the same mentality.

Could one say the Peter principle is related to it?

 

[missedmybus]

I dropped out when I was 14. I don't know what the peter principle is.

I've worked my way up in multiple "educated" jobs over the years and always hit some manager who got there just by being there long enough.
Yes peter principle is exactly failing upwards from a quick google
Yes peter principle is exactly failing upwards from a quick google