The Egalitarian Society

We have been brainwashed by our time. Not that that is necessarily a negative thing. But it may help us to gain perspective and refrain from judging people who came before or other cultures today when they do not embody the same ideals as us.

An example of this is western civilization's belief in egalitarianism. Today, we operate under the paradigm that all government positions, job hirings, promotions, spots to study at a college, and judicial decisions should be decided on a merit basis and that every other way of choosing someone over another is ethically wrong. I am not disputing that this could be true, I just want to point out the fact that this is not the only approach that one can take. For most of human civilization, such decisions were based on relationship ties, not merit. Your fitness for a position was not a function of how good you could do a job but your identity, your membership in a group. This society has often been termed the corporate society. It is apparent in tribal societies, pre-modern European society, and is in fact alive today in western society even if we do not recognize it. Today we feel an aversion to a politician who advances a relative and immediately label it as nepotism and unfair. What we may not realize is that this was normal practice. It was expected that decisions should be made in this manner. On another level, society was understood to only be able to function on a class basis. One belongs to a certain class that has certain responsibilities. Society would not function if anybody could do whatever they wanted. Important responsibilities would be neglected since no one wants to do the bottom jobs.