Are you Sorkin kidding us… April 2, 2017
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.trackback
“Are you saying that women and minorities have a more difficult time getting their stuff read than white men, and you’re also saying that [white men] get to make mediocre movies and can continue on?” the creator of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip asked the audience, apparently rhetorically. He then went on to claim ignorance of Hollywood’s diversity problem, and it seems the word “meritocracy” was used, since moderator Elvis Mitchell suggested he’d confused the word with “meretricious.” “You’re saying that if you’re a woman or person of color, you have to hit it out of the park in order to have another chance?” Sorkin later added.
Wow.
Loved the West Wing, despite it’s cloying smugness, though the News Room had genuine promise. But key to both of those was the delusion, at least as I see it, that liberalism is unquestionable and unquestionably well intentioned and that there is a sort of centre-ground (in the US) which is rational, reasonable and…well, yes, again… well-intentioned. And it’s not difficult to see how that sort of a mind set could inflect his understanding of the world around him.
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
Recently got a copy of ‘Rise of the Meritocracy’ by Michael Young (a socialist 1.0 from the Atlee govt.) – until recently was unaware that he intended the word – which he invented – as a pejorative, and the book as a dystopic warning.
Liberals got a hold of the word, and the rest is history.
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As I recall, the problem with Young’s analysis was that he could oppose the concept by appealing to the value of emotional qualities. He accepted the idea of merit on its own terms of IQ. He did not examine whether there are different types of intelligence.
I would refer y’all to the episode of the Simpsons, where the local Mensa branch takes over Springfield and finds that its members are hopelessly divided against each other. Does Sorkin watch the Simpsons, I wonder ?
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I’ll keep that in mind when reading it; thanks!
Agree that IQ as a unit (like a BTU) is a very dodgy concept.
I probably posted these before, but in case missed:
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/outsmarted-perlstein
https://thebaffler.com/blog/experts-baffled-1-smart
I work in animation; one of the finest animators I worked with was a Canadian savant (CLR, our mutual friend MC will know of whom I speak). This animator could not be described as a brilliant intellect – he’s no dumbo either, but he’s basically a regular guy – likes sport, fast cars, hot dames, etc., but in one respect he’s a genius… his animation ability is like NOTHING I’ve seen. I wasn’t the only person to describe him as a Mozart, one of those creatures with a natural brilliance that can only be described as genius.
There is no way he will ever be labeled as such by a standardized IQ test. And had he be been born before the age of animation, say 300 years ago, he’d likely have ended his days trudging down some bloody mineshaft.
Regarding MENSA and the silicon valley ‘geniuses’, sheesh. Knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing isn’t saying much. On their rush to ‘disrupt’, it never seems to occur to these 20-something wunderkinder that they might be the Fool in the Tarot trumps.
https://aeon.co/essays/on-the-dark-history-of-intelligence-as-domination
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MENSA 😦
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Yeah talking of guilty pleasures I also liked the west wing. He really comes off awful here. Yeah the idea of meritocracy needs to be torn down for the liberal lie that it is which relies on inherent advantages. In America Chris Hayes the closest thing to a mainstream leftist wrote a book on this called twilight of the elites. Yeah sexism was pretty obvious in the west wing cj was the only female character in a powerful position and she constantly is undermined.
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It’s funny how WW is so problematic. Brilliant television but… problematic. +1 re sexist sometimes while a cosmetic patina of non-sexism. Donna’s portrayal was problematic too. What did you think of the News Room or did you get a chance to see it.
I hate the idea of meritocracy.
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I saw the Newsroom briefly I thought it was ok though I heard bad things later. I liked the idea of almost showing the media by example how it should report on real-life events. You always here from leftists that liberals are pretty bad on identity issues but I never saw it so pathologically exemplified as it was by Sorkin. The level of absolute isolation that has to exist around him is astonishing. the famous American Jurist Learned Hand said “The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the minds of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interests alongside its own without bias” Sorkin needs to learn that lesson (the comment by thetheroo was me for some reason my name got changed on my phone.)
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It’s no accident that some of the very worst liberal-centrist hacks in the US today – people like Matthew Iglesias, who spend all their time railing against Bernie Sanders and trying to prove that single-payer health care is impossible – say they were inspired to go into Beltway politics by The West Wing. There was an article a few years ago about the influence of TWW which managed to be utterly horrifying despite being written as a celebration.
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