Atheist Ethicist Blog Entry - Crises and Competence

[YankeyMCC]

I thought this makes a great point in a clear way and should be shared. It talks about what our moral responsibility in helping to create a culture where we get competent people into positions to help us all through a crisis, and of course we have several of those (crises) we need to get through and one or more kinda important elections.

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Three months ago, you had a good idea what the world would be like two years from now. Even with the question of whether Obama or McCain would become President, the differences here would not be earth shattering. After all, we survived eight years under Bush. With a Democratic Senate and House, we could probably survive four years of McCain.

Now, intelligent people have to be asking, what will the world be like in two years? Unemployment in the double digits on a global scale? Baby boomers with their retirement accounts all but destroyed and nothing to live on but Social Security, and a government too bankrupt to even pay that. Perhaps we will be dealing with double-digit inflation, destroying investments by doubling the price of everything on the shelves.
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Those of us who have an unfavorable view of Bush and who have warned about how his stupidity is a threat to all of us like to blame others for putting Bush into office. We did not vote for him, so none of this is our fault.

However, we all did not work as hard as we could have worked to get the right person in office. The fault lies not only with those who did not vote for Bush, but those who did nothing (or did not do as much as they could have) to challenge a culture that treated incompetence and stupidity as virtues worthy of holding the highest office in the land.

I am not talking about merely campaigning for one candidate or the other. I am talking about the types of behavior that we engage in that helps to shape the culture that we live in – the values that we express to our friends, families, co-workers, fellow club members, and other acquaintances on what counts as a virtue worthy of admiration and respect, and what it is foolish for people to hold in high esteem.
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One of the things that we can do is to use this opportunity to promote the idea that competence is a virtue, incompetence is a vice, and the idea that an incompetent (but likable) idiot can run the country is one of the most dangerous and most destructive ideas floating around this country today. The way we mold the culture – the way we create a culture that values competence – is through the things we say in the company of our friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, club members, and classmates.

In other words, we need to challenge the idea that elitism is a dirty word, and that elitists are worthy of condemnation.

I am an elitist. By that I mean that when there is a job to be done, the job should be given to those who are the best skilled in performing that job – the elite. If there is a military operation to be conducted, we want elite forces to do it. If there is a medical outbreak to contain, we want elite medical specialists to contain it. If there is a financial meltdown to handle, we want elite economists to tackle it.

This means that we also want elite people in office – highly educated people, highly competent people, people who have the ability to recognize competence in others and who are willing to put elite people into positions that require competence.

"You people who think that folksy ignorance is a virtue got us into this mess – and the rest of us let you do it. We will not be letting you do that to us again. There is too much at stake."

That's our job in this crisis. That's what we can do. Because we are going to get through this a lot better and a lot faster with intelligent, competent people working on the problem, then we can ever hope to do by trusting to idiots backed by a circle of supporters praying that the idiot can come up with the right answer.
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much more: http://atheistethicist.blogspot.com/2008/10/crises-and-competence.html

[ima_sinnic]

1. recommended! very clear view of things, reframing the idea of "elitist"

btw, you can still edit your post--the blog is Atheist Ethicist

[YankeyMCC]

2. thanks, fixed. nt