I feel like if even half of this was true, The change in Harvard’s and other university’s admission policy would have been a much bigger deal. Aristocracies don’t generally sit on their hands when something threatens their position. At the very least there would be legislative attempts to reverse the change. It’s possible the aristocracy didn’t realize how important the change was, but they should have realized it when the meritocrats became a thing, and when their kids stopped getting into top universities. There just wasn’t enough of a fight for something which supposedly toppled a virtual nobility. And it is highly unusual for an entire class of people to make an epistemic mistake about something which it is very important for them to get right, when the consequences of a mistake will be immediate and when the subject isn’t some obscure scientific field which requires expertise to understand. If David was smart enough to figure all of this out, why weren’t the aristocrats? It was far more important for them to get it right, and it doesn’t seem that David’s knowledge of the future was particularly useful for this inference, so the aristocrats had nearly all the relevant information David did.
This is assuming a united class of people. Add a faction within that class that thinks that many other members of the class don't deserve to be there, and it makes perfect sense; they're performing necessary maintenance work on the aristocratic class.
After all, meritocracy is good, and the natural aristocracy, including themselves, will naturally rise to the top. The only people who will sink are those who deserve to.
Not really you don’t need a unified aristocracy to put up a fight as history amply demonstrates. Even if only half the aristocracy was opposed to the change. They would not just roll over and let their opponents win and a faction in favour of meritocracy can only form if these people can actually put their children into the ivy league. Otherwise they will notice very quickly that the new system does not work for them when they and their friends can’t put their children into Harvard like they want.
You remember all those scandals that came out recently about people bribing schools to get their kids good grades and acceptance into universities? I think that hack was allowed to work for a lot of them until they'd lost enough power that we were suddenly able to pull the rug out from under them and accuse them of cheating.
I feel like if even half of this was true, The change in Harvard’s and other university’s admission policy would have been a much bigger deal. Aristocracies don’t generally sit on their hands when something threatens their position. At the very least there would be legislative attempts to reverse the change. It’s possible the aristocracy didn’t realize how important the change was, but they should have realized it when the meritocrats became a thing, and when their kids stopped getting into top universities. There just wasn’t enough of a fight for something which supposedly toppled a virtual nobility. And it is highly unusual for an entire class of people to make an epistemic mistake about something which it is very important for them to get right, when the consequences of a mistake will be immediate and when the subject isn’t some obscure scientific field which requires expertise to understand. If David was smart enough to figure all of this out, why weren’t the aristocrats? It was far more important for them to get it right, and it doesn’t seem that David’s knowledge of the future was particularly useful for this inference, so the aristocrats had nearly all the relevant information David did.
This is assuming a united class of people. Add a faction within that class that thinks that many other members of the class don't deserve to be there, and it makes perfect sense; they're performing necessary maintenance work on the aristocratic class.
After all, meritocracy is good, and the natural aristocracy, including themselves, will naturally rise to the top. The only people who will sink are those who deserve to.
Not really you don’t need a unified aristocracy to put up a fight as history amply demonstrates. Even if only half the aristocracy was opposed to the change. They would not just roll over and let their opponents win and a faction in favour of meritocracy can only form if these people can actually put their children into the ivy league. Otherwise they will notice very quickly that the new system does not work for them when they and their friends can’t put their children into Harvard like they want.
You remember all those scandals that came out recently about people bribing schools to get their kids good grades and acceptance into universities? I think that hack was allowed to work for a lot of them until they'd lost enough power that we were suddenly able to pull the rug out from under them and accuse them of cheating.