Rewarding the Loser also Cheats Him
A reader with the cervine yet dogged name of Rudolph Harrier observes that Affirmative Action makes racial discrimination rational. It creates more of the very disease it seeks to cure.
His argument runs as follows.
Suppose that you have two doctors you can go to. They both went to the same school. Beyond that all you can tell is that one is an Asian man, the other is a black man. But you know that the school that gave them their degrees was willing to accept dramatically lower MCAT scores from black applicants, and presumably they also were more lenient on black students after application.
Now it’s possible that the black doctor didn’t need those accommodations and is actually much smarter and a much better doctor than the Asian doctor. But the only information you have tells you that it is also possible that the black doctor is underqualified, while this is not possible for the Asian doctor. So the rational decision is to choose the Asian doctor.
He argues that, by game theory logic based on available information, affirmative action creates a disincentive to patronize Negro doctors, and to patronize Oriental ones.
Because the Affirmative Action committees select race as the basis for falsifying the reward-system, race becomes a legitimate and rational basis for making judgments in situations of limited information, that is, bias. In this case, it becomes a rational and justified bias.
My comment:
Elevating anyone above his merits, as when the Gold Medal is bestowed to one who only performed at the level of Bronze, is getting something for nothing. All affirmative action, in other words, is theft.
This is not returning stolen property to the dispossessed. This is dispossessing him of whatever lesser worth he might have had.
Whatever the increment of value might be between Gold and Bronze has been taken from whoever deserved it and given to one who did not.
Saying he deserved it for some other reason, let us say we feel sorry for him, is not logically relevant. Logic says that someone or something must provide the stolen value.
In this case, the Gold Medal will come to be represent Bronze level of performance.
There ain’t no such thing as free lunch.
Given someone a badge of merit, or a credential, he did not earn is only feasible if the badge or credential was meaningless to begin with, that is, a privilege granted unfairly and arbitrarily.
For Leftists aka Gnostics, by the dogma of their creed, all rewards in life are unfair and arbitrary, for nothing, nothing whatever, is based on performance.
This is because they are godless hence irrational hence nihilist. Logically, if the universe is godless, all meaning is manmade, and whatever man can make, man can unmake as he sees fit, that is, arbitrarily.
Without God, logic itself is either a human construct, or an evolved human psychological nerve-structure. If it is a human construct, it is arbitrary. If evolved, hence created by unintentional natural processes, it is aimless hence arbitrary.
A godless universe is one where nothing is meaningful, nothing is virtuous, nothing is good nor bad, save only as a “narrative”, that is, as a falsehood meant to justify crime. All things are hypocrisy. All things are deception. All things are expressions of raw power of the strong over the weak.
No one in the godless universe can be good or bad, neither in the moral sense of a saint versus a sinner, nor in the practical sense of a good craftsman, athlete or scholar versus a shabby hack, a piker, or a dunce.
If I win a fencing match, win a Hugo Award, or am awarded a Law Degree, according to core Leftist dogma, this is due to my birth-privilege and identity group, nor according to anything I myself did or earned or gained with blade or pen or study.
The famous scene at the end of the film WIZARD OF OZ, where the humbug showman hands out diploma, testimonial, and medallion to recognize the merits displayed by the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman and Cowardly Lion, would be entirely reversed by the narrative as told by the Leftist. The three beloved characters, according to the Left, do not deserve any recognition, for they do not have these laudable traits. To laud a trait is unfair and racist. The recognition, in and of itself, creates the only merit that there is, and such recognition is a sign of power, raw power, power of the strong to grind the faces of the weak.
And so the Left treats all awards, all rank, all wealth, all medals and merit badges this way. Mayor Pete is not Transportation Secretary for any merit or ability. His only noteworthy property is having a male member shoved into his bunghole. He was granted this high office not to perform the office, but only to grind the faces of the Breeders, whom Darwin decrees his foes. Likewise, Rick Lavine is not made an Admiral of the Coast Guard for any merit or ability. He was granted this high rank not to perform the office, but only to grind the faces of the Cis, his enemies. Likewise again, Justice Jackson was granted this highest judicial magistracy in the land not for her merit, nor to perform the office, but only to grind the faces of the Whites, her enemies.
That is all Leftism is. That is all it ever was and ever will be. Leftism is envy. Leftism is revenge.
The awards brought out of the Black Bag of the Wizard of Oz, the outward symbols or signs of merit, themselves are the only reality: there is no such thing as intelligence, compassion, or courage. The appearance of virtue issues from the public display to signal the virtue. Virtue signaling is all that there is.
The premise that no one is ever responsible for his actions rests on the foundation of the dogma that all virtues are meaningless, and all gains are theft.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
