I thought it a cliché – the idea that socialism leveled the playing field by tearing down excellence. I thought the real issue with socialism was simply demotivating excellence. Ambition died when outcomes were always the same. Turns out I was wrong.
Turns out the newly installed, and very socialist, mayor of New York City wants to do away with the “Gifted and Talented” program in the public schools – literally ending excellence. His reason for doing so is all about racism, that somehow gifted programs and magnet schools are racist and the article just linked challenges that fantasy quite well. But I cannot get past the fact that he is proposing to actually do away with an opportunity to excel – for anybody. It’s not that the excellent lose their reward for excellence by having to share that reward equally – no – it is that there simply is no opportunity to excel. He proposes to literally tear down excellence.
We used to think the problem with all these level paying field things was that they would elevate the incapable. Thus you would end up with falling bridges and botched surgeries. But no, this idiot Mamdani has to go a step further – there will be no engineers, no doctors because there will be no excellence. There will be no ambition because there will be nothing to aspire to. Soon who is a doctor or a civil/structural engineer will not longer be a matter of desire and hard work – no the job will simply be assigned to the next person in line regardless of capability.
The year I was born, mankind put the first object into orbit. We are now about to send people to the moon, for the second time, and it is a reasonably routine exercise. Would that rapid advancement of technology be possible if there is no excellence? When I began my working career I built televisions – great clunky things with electromechanical tuners, the gears in which would wear out and you would have to jiggle the knob to get the right channel and electron beam picture tubes limited to a 25″ diagonal, consuming massive amounts of electricity. And all this to receive three channels. Nowadays the size of the TV in your living room is limited only by your budget, it does not have any tubes, and upon it you can get a near infinite amount of programming – all while drawing less electricity that the light bulb in the lamp next to you. Do you think that would have happened without excellence? I could go on like this for hours – seriously – don’t get me started on computing tech.
Now, imagine a world where you are not permitted to dream dreams or to aspire to something better because there is simply nothing better, and even if you dream it there is no pathway to it. Compound that dreariness with the fact that if you dare to have aspirations you are ridiculed, or worse punished, for wanting to excel above the guy next to you. Enter dystopia.
Mamdani thinks he is aspirational. He is not, he is destructive. California is falling apart, and the elevation of the incapable and incompetent has much to do with that. But Mamdani is going to destroy New York, not merely watch it decay.
