Survival of the fittest is the oldest law of Nature. In the
wild, Nature ensures that the fittest survives to continue the existence of
specie. There is no exception, survive or perish.
There is a NYT article in the Sunday Times today on the
success of Asians in American elite or specialised high schools. Of 14,415
students admitted to New York City High Schools, 59% were Asians. In 1971, Stuyvesant
High School was mostly white, with
10 % black and 4% Hispanics. Today, it is 72% Asians and less than 4% black or
Hispanics and the rest white.
There were protest that the admission system based on test
or academic abilities is unacceptable as it would edge out the blacks and
Hispanics. The govt stood its ground. NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, ‘You
pass the test,…you get the highest score, you get into the school, no matter
what your ethnicity, no matter what your economic background is.’ There is no
affirmative action for the less able blacks and Hispanics.
After centuries of practicing racial discriminations against
the Asians, the US
of today is living up to its Constitution, of equal rights for all. Of course
in many areas, this is still far from the truth. In this particular area on
education, in New York City, this
is the way forward.
Close to home, how far is this meritocracy being practiced?
In many ways we are like New York City,
the most able academically will be allowed to go to the best schools.
Meritocracy in practice by the human beans is closely mirroring survival of the
fittest in the wild, a process of natural selection. Of course there are
exceptions.
The practice of natural selection has its consequences. The
less able will eventually be extinct or elbowed out of the system. In New
York City and in Sin, there is this other element that
is not recognised or not spoken. The New Yorkers are protesting against
meritocracy for their own reasons. They do not want to lose out economically.
In Sin, when ‘foreign talents’ are imported in large numbers, as much as 50% of
the population, and if they really are more talented than the natives, the
outcome would see the natives being discriminated by meritocracy when the
foreigners moved in to secure the places in the good schools, the good jobs,
the better housing and everything else.
It is only a matter of time when the less able natives will
have to move out, to make way for the foreigners, the new citizens, the more
meritorious. Is this what we want, is this what nation building is all about?
Do the natives think that their country should be inherited by the more
talented and they have no place of existence or be around just to serve the new
and more deserving citizens? Is this a country, or just a hotel.
17 comments:
Politics is simply a process of determining who gets what.
In a plutocracy, the rich gets the big prizes.
Aristocracy ... government by the nobility.
You do not have to accept the status quo.
This is called change.
Regime change.
Begin to think the unthinkable.
redbean:
>> Survival of the fittest is the oldest law of Nature. In the wild, Nature ensures that the fittest survives to continue the existence of specie. There is no exception, survive or perish. <
Err, no. Not quite. You have fallen into the trap of the "populist" interpretation (aka misinterpretation) of the Darwinian theory (now accepted as fact) of Evolution By Natural Selection.
You are also using a biological model to explain some kind of social phenomena which has been observed, but has immediately and wrongly explained by a misinterpretation of Darwin's theory.
i.e. you are wrong on so many counts, but write in such a compelling way that the majority of dumb, non-skeptical, easily-duped cocksuckers will not only believe you, but thrown in their own nonsense in a discussion.
This is how misinformation, myth and popular belief spreads, and redbean, you are doing an outstanding job in the perpetuation of bullshit.
Anyway, here is my 2 cents on your central and final question:
As a Singaporean, I want my dead-shit fellow citizens out of the picture. Singapore is a small island, and a very limited territory. Therefore it can afford to be SELECTIVE without upsetting the "balance" of the global population.
Singapore should continue to attract the best and the brightest, and those who feel "challenged" should with buck the fuck up, or go the fuck away.
Is that clear enough?
All it takes is a change in attitude and a willingness to give it your best.
Got man-up and get into the meritocracy game?
P.S. Social and technological change tend to follow Lamarkian models of evolution. i.e. construction workers and those using physical effort tend to have lean, strong bodies and as a group will evolve as such. (very basic example).
Lamarkian evolution is VERY FAST. for e.g. societies/ individual can (if they choose) to adapt to change several orders of magnitude QUICKER than it takes for the species to change biologically.
In technology, the development of "better" tech is almost as fast as the demand requires. We don't wait for our human brains to evolve to become "better". We create machines, and develop tech to deal with the short-comings of our human "design". If we didn't we would not be able to have 7+ billion humans.
Similarly, one can adopt a (hybrid) Lamarkian model to explain Singapore's evolution as a city-state -- the societal, political, cultural and economic changes that are occurring and will continue to occur.
A fundamental concept to understand in both Darwinian and Lamarkian evolution is that of selection pressure. Without selection pressures, there is no evolution -- i.e. no change.
Lastly, all models are only TOOLS or simplified representations adopted and adapted to explain observed phenomena. They are NOT the actual phenomena themselves, so it is important to realise that accuracy of results and conclusions derived from the models have only a degree of "correctness", and the likelihood of Types 1 & 2 errors is probable. i.e. expect to be WRONG.
Despite all their complaints, Sporeans are not fighting back by rising to the occasion and giving the foreigners a run for their money in terms of quality.
At the same time, the dice are loaded agst us, because quality isn't noticed if you are Singaporean. In fact, in too many quarters, it is seen as a threat! It's such third world thinking to see only cheaper as better.
That aside, if we raise the stakes substantially, by being Much better than the cheapo guys, the lesson could perhps be driven home. If nothing else, it would raise the worth of each of us on the global stage, making it easier to get a good job abroad and go Nyah Nyah Nyah to the folks at home.
Matilah, thank you for your flattery and seeing me up. You are entitled to your own views and visions of what this island or the world should be. If your version is the desirable outcome, allow me to make a few projections.
In the city of New York, it may reach a point that Asians will fill up 80% or 90% of the student intakes in the elite schools. Eventually, if there is no revolution to dislodge or kill them, America will belong to the Asians.
In Sin, if foreigners, supposedly more talented, would be allowed to run free and do whatever they want because they are better, the natives could be extinct or forced out of their island country.
To you this is natural and must be. I disagree, and I am sure many Sinkies will disagree and will not allow it to happen before they throw the govt out.
For stateless people like you, anything goes as you think you are superior to the masses, which I can agree as 70 or 80% of the masses are by statistics less intelligent than the top 20% and thus can be duped and are expandable.
Citizens live to support the State or the State exists for the citizens? For the former, there is no need for citizens, anyone will do as long as the State continues to exist.
For the latter, there is no purpose for the existence of a State if the citizens are not taken care of.
redbean: No one can predict the future accurately.
In 2008, the GFC. Massive collapses everywhere. Most people, including "ex-spurts" thought it was the end of the world.
Now 2012 -- there is still a mess in Europe, Middle East and growing anxiety elsewhere. Yet, the world is still functioning reasonably ok. We haven't "collapsed" although some people are having more challenging times.
You have made false premises in your "projections". You have (wrongly) assumes that "Asians" will be a fixed ethnic group. You have failed to consider the assured probability of inter-marriage and the creation of "mixed" (chap cheng -- like me) off spring.
It is human nature to look for confirming "evidence" to support our hypotheses. This is the basis of confirmation bias, and our brains are so wired for belief, that we will hold onto our own conclusions and ignore any possibility that we could be wrong.
Your arrogant stance certainly reflects this human trait quite well. You are unashamedly married to your own brand of bullshit, and the hilarious part is that you will bend over backwards to not only DEFEND it, but ELABORATE on it -- false premises notwithstanding.
Got delusion?
In your view everyone including the most brilliant academic is in a state of delusion as everyone is spreading bullshit.
Have you ever heard of expressing an opinion and you don't have to agree like no one need to agree with your opinion? I feel sorry for you if you think I am trying to convince the world that I am telling the whole truth and the world will believe in me.
Your arrogance is that no one can make any opinions or suggestions or views except you, matilah.
Got arrogance?
Measured in terms of arrogance and delusional belief in the correctness of his own opinions;
Matilah has been drinking the same kool aid as Singapore's grandfather.
Let me just say that we are such a tiny country of only 5 million. We do have the base of humanity. That is a fact. Now look at China and India where nearly a third of the world's population live. More than 2 billion of humanity in only the two giants. In terms of base, there is huge mass if humanity. Just 1% of the comibined 2 over billions - their top best brains coming over to our land of birth for scholarships, jobs, businesses etc. Put that in perspective, do we stand a chance if we compete with them equally based on meritocracy? I say no chance at all. Soon, we shall be edged out in everything and they shall occupy all the top elites after their studies. Our 5 million people just simply can't produce the kind of talent and super brains compared to their huge humanity base.
If you look at the World Olympics and other international events, it's always those huge countries that dominate. Our table tennis also got to be imported from China. Where is our original sports talent. Only that Tan HL weight lifting so many decades ago managed an Olympic medal!
It's true and a fact. If the govt doesn't moderate the inflow of foreign talent, natives will surely lose out in that sense. New York City is only a small part of USA. We are different. We will be over run by those brilliant talented immigrants in another generation. Our children will be displaced.
Ultimately it begs the question. Whose land is it? Whose country? The country belongs to aliens or natives? It's a sobering fact when you quoted the case of New York City. But we are different from New York City. We are worst if the same scenario takes hold here. Think over it cuz it's about our long term survival in our land of birth. It won't be in my lifetime but our children's children's time c
For once, me finds Redbean unsure of who caused and is causing the Influx of aliens.
Do allow me to say that the people cannot and should not be blamed for their intakes. Only the Government can approve them and only It has the authority to give them scholarship, internship and whatever.
On the other hand, as commented by Darkness, Blogosphere was filled with disapproval and warning wirh regard taking in aliens to settle here, almost a decade ago.
And against the will of the Netizens, larger number of aliens were brought in with claims by the People In White thar they were and are sorely needed.
Padaly has asked the question whose land is tis?
What is the Answer?
patriot
There is only one solution.
We must vote in leaders who believe in us, the Singaporeans.
Leaders who truly believe and trust in Singaporeans.
Not the spineless Leeders in white clothing.
Singaporeans deserve a better class of leaders.
We deserve better. Much better.
GE 2016.
Let us take the first step towards a regime change.
A first step towards independence day in Singapore.
Ahem, Patriot. I am very clear as to the cause of this great immigration. Not many people understand, and I know you don't either. You need to look deeper, look at the big picture. A bit of training in political science will definitely help.
Take some time to seriously think about it. The govt did get overboard in its execution, but if you know why, you would not blame the govt entirely.
Padaly, you are right to say that NY is just a city in a continent. It can do what it is doing without serious impact on the demography of the country.
Sin is a city and a country all rolled into one. Doing it will see disastrous consequences to the natives.
In Singapore, it is the survival of the fattest - the fat cats.
redbean:
Everyone IS in a state of delusion -- mainly self-inflicted. However there are mental tools we all use to "test" reality, sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. Some mental tools are simply emotional masking as rational, and few people can tell the difference.
And, oh yes, scientists and smart academics can be fooled quite easily.
1. Project Alpha
2. The Sokal Affair
However science is a process which is self correcting, but that could take time ;-)
BTW redbean, don't twist my words lah or even attempt to misrepresent me. Everything is written here as a record. So @%!* to you!
Thank you for being so polite: )
It is not nature that caused the extinction of certain animals. It is human especially those with huge milk appetite. They need to milk all local and foreign cows until they dry up, die or leave. One day, native Singaporeans will be an extinct group just like Dodo.
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