Thread on my thoughts re: elites: I think elite schooling can help develop real talents in people. But here’s the thing: the idea that those talents are “inherent” vs “cultivated as a result of investments” is where I take serious issue. The consequences are really important

Because if you see your talents as a result of investments then you realize that as a society we have a responsibility to support the investment in all—to give the widest range of opportunity because you never know where exceptional talents might come from

(As an aside I actually don’t care about this argument that much because I don’t think we should invest in people because of a more effient outcome, we should do it on moral grounds. But anyway. Back to the argument)

If you see your talents as mostly an inherent quality of yourself—your work, your genetics, your family, your core being—then you not only obscure where your talents really came from, you often begin to imagine that those who don’t have your qualities are somehow less worthy

I work quite hard. I have some native intelligence. But more than anything huge resources were poured into me. And if the same amount were paid into everyone I have no doubt I wouldn’t have reached where I am, given such competition. I’m lucky

I see others not as less worthy or less inherently talented, but less graced by the overwhelming investments I’ve enjoyed. I think society would be better off if the distribution of those investments was more equal.

One could make an argument that selecting some for massive resource investments is better because exceptional talents require exceptional investments. But even so the implication is not that the chosen are naturally exceptional it is that they have the privilege of being selected

And the further implication is one of a moral responsibility because of that selection, as well as a humility of recognition—one where you don’t “deserve” your rewards. Because they’re not yours. You had unique opportunities that if others had them, you’d not be as rewarded

For the most part people don’t get what they deserve. They get what they were given. And if we understood life chances not as about individual outcomes but instead the social process of that given, it has huge impacts on what we owe to others in this world and how we should act.