What is meritocracy? Most of us learned the term as a nod to the idea that when you study hard, work hard, treat people fairly, in the U.S. our “meritocracy” rewards such behavior with the spoils of upward mobility: career development, peer recognition, (social) security.

“We live in a system that espouses merit, equality, and a level playing field, but exalts those with wealth, power, and celebrity, however gained.” 
― Derrick A. Bell, Ethical Ambition: Living a Life of Meaning and Worth

But let’s look at what happened on ’11/9′ (see link above as to the significance of this date). An agreed-upon charlatan won an election through a series of ‘bad faith’ acts: lying repetitively; baiting a naive electorate with false promises (many of which he has managed to break within 20 days of his ‘election’); promoting espionage by and foul play of a foreign government with abandon; and attacking the core character of his opponent with false memes and libelous epithets.

Let’s review our assumptions about the U.S. meritocracy we espouse and prize…

In grade school, we experienced that cheating on tests led to detention, suspension, and ridicule by teachers and administrators.  In the arena of sports, outcomes based on such bad faith have been met with disqualification, removal of a title, and sheer banishment.  In 2012, Lance Armstrong was stripped of all his Tour de France titles since 1998 on confirmation of his doping; scrutiny of the practice continues to mount.  In medicine (my field), self-promotion on the back of fabricated data is met with career-ending consequences. All this is consistent with our shared notion of “meritocracy.”

But in stark contrast, in the instance of the 11/8 election, what happened? A fraudster’s ‘accomplishment’ is met with a grand ‘lurching toward normalcy,’ as media elites and their ilk rush to accept as ‘normal’ the man who reached the magical rubicon of ‘270.’  270.

We owe ourselves a thorough reconciliation of this notion of meritocracy, following 11/9.  We can’t hold ourselves to the high standards of our meritocracy if we allow this dumbing down that is the present outcome of this recent election.  Likewise, we can’t hold our students and colleagues to that same standard.  And perhaps most important, we cannot teach our children about our meritocracy and its associated aspirations, if we allow this dilution of our principles to take hold.

Another reason to find a way forward that is punctuated by thoughtful resistance and fierce opposition.