26 Oct 2020

“None of That Damned Nonsense About Merit”

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David Swenson.

Back in the 1830s, Lord Melbourne declared he liked the Order of the Garter best of all his titles because there was “none of that damned nonsense about merit” connected to it.

The elite community of fashion’s current enthusiasm for what is referred to as “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion” has a basic similarity to Lord Melbourne’s perspective, except his merit-free inclusion in the Garter Order was based on a supposed inherited excellence, while the Identity Groups singled out for special treatment under DEI base their claims to special privilege upon ressentiment.

David Swenson has a long record of achieving superior returns by his management of Yale’s endowment. Apparently, he now has decided either that other goals are more important or that anyone can achieve the same.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

America’s most prominent endowment chief has a message for the firms that manage the school’s money: Hire more women and minorities, or possibly lose the university’s backing.

David Swensen is the veteran investment chief of Yale University’s $31.2 billion endowment. Earlier this month, he told the dozens of firms that manage Yale’s money they would be measured on their progress increasing the diversity of their investment staffs. Mr. Swensen said the Yale Investments Office would be working to improve its own team’s composition, too.

RTWT

It is hilarious the way people like this talk about Meritocracy, but their idea of Meritocracy has a heavy thumb on the scale in several class cases.

The old-time Jewish quota (which I strongly suspect still exists) is denounced, but the Asian quota is defended vigorously in court. Certain groups absolutely must be awarded super-proportional representation, at any cost, on the basis of historical disadvantage. But, other outsider groups, Appalachians and working class ethnic Catholics, for instance, also conspicuously historically little represented in Ivy League admissions and in elite financial circles are completely overlooked, simply due to their failure to agitate and complain. The hypocrisy and irrationality is astonishing.

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4 Feedbacks on "“None of That Damned Nonsense About Merit”"

Seattle Sam

So, David, did you build that reputation as “America’s most prominent endowment chief” by producing superior investment results or by hiring more black people? If the latter, why do you think that others haven’t figured that out?



Seattle Sam

In sporting news, the Ivy League has announced that umpires will expand the width of home plate from 17″ to 19″ if a black pitcher is having trouble throwing strikes.



Seattle Sam

“made Yale a more meritocratic place than decades ago”. Unless, of course, you’re Asian, in which case merit doesn’t matter.



Mike-SMO

But they are still focusing on an inherited condition, although it is now a lack of merit and/or persistence. But without “testing”, how will they exclude intelligence? They don’t even allow the proxy of criminal convictions.



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