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Secret History #7: Death by Meritocracy | Predictive History | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: Secret History #7: Death by Meritocracy
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Summary
Core Theme
The lecture argues that the American meritocracy, particularly as exemplified by elite universities like Harvard, is fundamentally flawed and actively detrimental to society. It claims that the system, designed to identify and reward talent and hard work, has devolved into a mechanism for maintaining power and privilege, fostering inequality, and causing psychological harm.
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Okay, good afternoon class. So, um this
will be our last class before the break.
We have a three-w weekek break coming
up. Um I hope that during these three
weeks you have a chance to reflect on
what what we've learned because when we
come back we'll continue to build on the
ideas that we've learned so far. And so
today I want to talk about the meritocracy.
meritocracy.
The meritocracy means that people should
succeed based on their talent, their
ability, and their hard work. And in
theory, this sounds like a good idea.
And in fact, the school system is built
around the idea of a meritocracy. The
good students go to the best
universities and then after they
graduate, they will get the very best
jobs. That's the idea. But what I will
show you today is that there actually
lots of problems with the meritocracy.
And what I also show you is that in fact
this idea is actually destroying
American society.
Okay. So the first thing I'm going to do
is I'm going to explain to you why
America has the world's most complicated
emission system. Okay? So in China when
you apply to university you take the
GACA you take you take an examination
and then based on on your test score you
get into university and this is a system
that most countries use only in America
is a system that's complicated your
transcript matters but so does your uh
standardized test scores the SAT
uh the TOEFL so does your ext extracurriculars
extracurriculars
So does teacher recommendation letters
and so does essays in which you have to
say to America, I'm a really good
person. Why does it matter if you're a
good person? Okay, so it's it's the
world's most complicated emission
system. So what I'll do first is explain
to you why we have this system. Okay, so
we start off in England in the 1600s.
And at this time in history in England,
there's a major conflict between
um religious belief and the king. Okay,
the king is head of the Anglican
Anglican church which the official
church of England. And there's no
difference between the Anglican church
and the Catholic Church. The only
difference is in the Catholic church the
head is the pope. In the Anglican
church, the head is the king of England.
That's the only difference. In terms of
rituals, in terms of belief, it's the
same. Now there are people called Protestants
Protestants who
who
believe there should be no pope, there
should be no king. You should as an
individual be able to act as God
directly. And you do that by reading the Bible.
Bible.
So at this time in history there's a
major conflict between the Protestants
the p the Puritans
uh or the denters
and the king and it leads to wars
basically and so the solution is the
king says to the denters hey there's
this new place called America it's far
away go there guys and leave me alone
okay so uh the denters go as pilgrims to
to
America to build their own theocracy,
what they believe to be the new
Jerusalem or paradise on earth, heaven
on earth. Now, one core belief of the
Protestants is you must read the Bible
in order to understand the mind of God.
Therefore, education, literacy,
learning, it is the divine imperative.
And that's why they established Harvard. Okay.
Okay.
Harvard was a school designed to train
people into the religion called
ministers in order to study the Bible in
order to spread the truth of the Bible.
Now Harvard then would um encourage
development of other universities uh
And collectively they would be known as
the Ivy League. Right? So this is how
the Ivy League started because America
was founded as a religious colony and
everyone needed to read the Bible. So
they needed places to study the Bible
and so they founded Harvard and then
Yale and then Princeton. Okay. But over
time as America became more wealthy it
became also less religious and so the
Ivy League became social clubs.
And what I mean by that is these were
just places where the rich of America
went to become friends. Okay? It was to
build cohesion. Right? And remember we
discussed the idea of cohesion where you
if you commit transgression you become
more cohesive. So these guys did not
study. They drank. They dress up like
girls. They had wild parties. They
played football. They took risks. Okay?
And they became good friends. And they
they went on to become the leaders of America.
America.
As America became much more diverse,
much bigger and much more wealthy,
it recognized that it needed to educate
its population and started it started
what we call AMM. Okay, you may have
heard the term Texas&M. Okay, it means
Texas Aerocultural Mechanical. The
reason why was these schools were uh
built to train farmers, engineers and
soldiers, okay, trades people in order
to help grow the American economy. Now,
and these the system was extremely
successful. America was able to
industrialize really really quickly and
most people went to these schools. only
the rich would go to the Ivy League
because they were country clubs or
social clubs. Over time, America as
began to as began to industrialize more
and more, it recognizes it needed
science and technology. So, it basically
copied the best universities in Germany
and Germany was at this at this time the
main center of science and technology in
the world and so they built something
called research universities.
universities.
Okay. And a couple of the first research
universities were Chicago University,
the University of Chicago and John
Hopkins. Okay. So at in the about 1900,
you have this system, okay, um of state
schools where most people went. If
you're a poor person, you go to learn to
trade and then you go and get and get a
good job and make good money. If you
were if you want to be a professor or
scientist, you went to these research
universities. If you were rich, you went
to these social clubs called the Ivy
League. And quite honestly, it was a
really good system. And America should
have stayed with this system.
But what happened was who's unhappy now
>> these guys, right?
>> Harvard, Young Princeton. Because if you
think about it, over time, they become
less and less relevant. Because just
because you're rich doesn't mean you're
smart. All the smart people are going to
to Chicago and John Hopkins. And so over
time we can expect Chicago and John
Hopkins to overtake the Ivy League.
Okay. And that's why Harvard decided to
in to institute scholarship programs. So
it wanted more smart people into its it
wanted to welcome more smart people into
its campus. Okay. And this creates
something called the SAT.
Okay, this is the origin of the SAT. The
SAT was founded as a scholarship program
to identify the best and brightest
students from all over America so that
they can come to Harvard and help
Harvard be the best university in the
world. Okay. Um
but now who's angry about the system?
Harvard's not happy that the best best
students are going to Chicago and John
Hopkins. So they bu So they quit the SAT
and now the best students are coming to
Harvard. Now who's unhappy?
>> The rich kids, right? Okay. The alumni,
the legacies because before their kids
just just their kids can just go to
Harvard and have a great time. Now it's
hard for them to get in. They have to
take a test. And also they're in class
with smarter people. Okay. So now
Harvard has a problem. On one hand, it
wants the best students in America, but
on the other hand, it still wants to
maintain good relations with its alumni.
So that's why it created a new system.
Okay? In this new system,
grades are not the only factor. Test
scores are not are not the only factor.
Now it's focused on holistic.
>> Holistic. Okay. The new word is
holistic. Specifically, character.
Just being smart is not good enough. You
have to be a good person. You have to be
a strong and brave and
and virtuous person. Okay? So, they have
a new concept called character. But this
word was created to basically keep Jews
out. Okay? Because Jews are really
smart, but Jews like to read books. So,
they're not good at sports. And so, like
that's not good. We need people who are
manly, who are strong, who are brave. We
need white people. Okay? Okay. So they
developed this holistic
system and that's why we have the system
that we have today where it's not just
test scores, it's essays, it's
transcript, it's teacher recommendations
because they want to identify the Jews
and keep them out. Okay. Today we have
the system to identify both the Jews and
the Asians to keep them out. Yes.
>> They would they would even identify for
your household like they would ask for
your profile.
>> Exactly. Exactly. So all the information
that they're looking at today is to
identify your ethnicity, your um yeah,
they want to keep they basically want to
keep Asians out of Harvard. Okay,
>> that's it. It's that simple. All right,
but but I'll explain I'll explain more
as we go along. Okay. All right. Um so
the purpose of all these changes is to
ensure that Harvard remains the
institution of power in America. That
doesn't make sense. Harvard is not
interested in academics. It's interested
in power. Therefore, it must ensure that
the people who come to Harvard are the
ones who are most likely to succeed. And
that's why it doesn't want all Asians.
It wants a mix of students. Okay. But
I'll explain this later on. Okay. Now,
in this new system, there are two key
concepts. The first key concept is the
idea of secrecy.
Okay. Secrecy. Secrecy just means like
I'll never tell you why I let you in or
why I didn't let you in. I don't have
to. Okay. The other is the idea of discretion.
discretion.
Discretion means that
I can choose to to let in for no reason.
Okay? So in China, if you get a really
high score on the gao bay or chin has to
let you in. Not not in America. You can
be the best student in the world. They
don't care if they don't like you.
They'll just they'll just say we don't
want you. Okay? They have their own
institutional reasons to let you in and
they'll never tell you. All right? And
the system was created to ensure that
Harvard is able to recruit the best
students in the world. But what's
important for us to remember is from
Harvard's perspective, best just means
the most likely to succeed, not
necessarily the best academically
oriented student, not the smartest
student. Okay. So, let let's run a
thought experiment. Okay. Let's just say
that you are a Harvard admissions
officer and you're presented with four
students. Okay? You're Harvard, the best
Okay? And I give you four students and
you you only let in one student, okay?
You tell me who you let in. I'll tell
you if you're a good admissions officer
or not. Okay? Okay. The first is the
best math genius from China. Okay.
>> Everyone's like, "No." All right. Second
is the best basketball player
in the world. Okay. Basketball player in
America. Okay.
>> Okay. The third is the best student in
And the fourth is three generations
of Harvard. Okay. So your father, your
grandfather, your great-grandfather went
to Harvard. Who do you let in?
>> You guys know the system exactly. Okay.
>> You don't even think about it. Like I
let in number four. Okay. Because you
know that in the world he is the most
likely to succeed. You're not interested
in educating smart people. All you want
to do is graduate rich people. Okay. So,
let's but let's just say this guy
doesn't exist. Then who who do you let in?
in?
>> Exactly. Yep. This guy. Okay. Definitely
not this guy. Okay. Definitely not math
teachers from China because you know
that he's probably just as a math
teacher, right? Math professor. Who? We
don't want that. Okay. We don't want
professors. We don't want lawyers. We
don't want doctors. Want people who will
be head of a company. One people who
will become a famous rock star, one
people who will become president of
United States. That's what we want.
Okay. And um yeah, so either one of
these two is fine. No. No. Okay. But we
want these guys to apply because that
helps us look better, right? We want
people to apply so we can reject them so
that our metrics look better. Okay.
Okay. That does that make sense? Okay.
That's how the system works. All right.
So, let me explain why they do this.
Okay. Why is the system system set like
this? The best analogy for Harvard,
Yale, and uh sorry, go go ahead.
>> Um like does all the uh admission
officers in America college doing this intentionally?
intentionally?
>> Okay, that's a really good question.
Okay, so um if you're the Ivy League,
you do this because everyone wants to go
to the Ivy League. But if you're an
average school, you're actually just
trying to recruit students. Okay? So, so
this is like the school, this is the
mentality of admissions officers for
elite schools. But most most schools are
just like they want you to come in and
pay the tuition. Okay.
>> So, why uh the Yale pick you?
>> Yeah, I'll explain later on. Okay. Okay.
>> All right. So, so Harvard
is first and foremost a venture capital
firm. Okay.
Okay. You're an investment firm. So,
let's let's pretend you're a venture
capitalist and I give you two options,
okay? And you tell me which option you
pick. Option one is I want to open a restaurant
restaurant
and I need a million dollars from you.
Okay? But guess what, guys? My uncle
works for the government. So, I can
guarantee that he and his friends will
come to my restaurant every single day.
And so, there's no risk. There's
absolutely no risk involved. I guarantee
we'll make at least $500,000
a year. No risk. Five easy money. Okay.
Number two is I want to start a website
that that's AI and Bitcoin or and uh um
all all this. Okay. problem is I don't
even know how to write code. I have no
experience writing doing a website and
my idea isn't really fleshed out. But if
it works, we can make $1 billion, guys.
Okay, so option one is low risk, really
good plan, solid returns, $500,000 a
year. Okay, option two is concept, vague
idea. I have absolutely no experience
doing any of this, but I but we could
possibly make a billion dollars. Okay.
Which option do you take?
Okay. You always take this guys. Okay.
Right. Cuz like you don't need $500,000.
That's boring. You want a billion
dollars and that's the mentality of
Harvard. You understand? They want to
take a risk on you. They don't want
students who are solid and who become a
professor. That's boring. Okay? They
want crazy people who will change the
world because that makes Harvard look
good. Okay. Another saying this is they
rather so so they rather have a class
where 10 people succeed and 999 fail
rather than a thousand people succeed slightly.
slightly.
>> Does that make sense? Okay. Why? Because
we only remember the 10 people who succeed.
succeed.
>> We forget everyone else.
Okay, that's the Harvard mentality and
that's why they're the most famous
university in the world because they're
looking to create as much brand name
recognition for themselves as possible. Okay?
Okay?
Right? Does that make sense? All right. Now,
Now,
how do we know if they succeed or not if
you're Harvard? Well, remember the class
that we learned last class, which is dissociative
dissociative personality
personality disorder.
disorder.
And what we discussed last class is in a
game, people who are most likely to
succeed have this characteristic.
Okay? And so I'll explain why using
myself as an example because I got into
Yale. Okay? So what we're going to do is this.
this.
We're going to examine my application to
Yale and then we're going to look at how
the admissions officers would perceive application
application
and how they would judge my potential.
Okay, so three things. The first is what
actually says. Second is they will
examine my background and the third is
they will then judge my potential.
Okay. All right. So, my application. All
right. So, I went to a public high
school. It was good, but it's not a
private high school. You get better
education on a private high school.
Plus, it's it's in Canada, okay? Which
is like everyone's kind of stupid in in
Canada. Okay? So, and I was like top 10
of 200 kids. So, it's good, but it's not
number one. It's not number two. It's
just top 10. Okay. I was number 10. My
SAT was 1,400
out of 1600. and it's like decent, but
you know, people are trying to get 1550,500
1550,500
easily. Okay, so
um not not that great. I was on a soccer team.
team.
I was not athletic. The soccer team just
needed players, so I signed up. Okay. Um
I was also editor of the school newspaper.
newspaper.
Okay. And I was captain of a quiz team
quiz team called Reach for the Top.
Okay, so that's a Canadian thing, but I
was captain of it. I organized it. Okay,
so these three activities, they're fine,
but it doesn't really demonstrate
leadership potential, right? You're not
like head of student government or
you're not head of modern United
Nations. All right. Um, on my essay, I
wrote about Richard Feman who is a
physicist. It was a really boring essay.
It was I mean like anyone could have
written I mean like chat chat could have
written it. Okay. It was just a bad
essay. My teachers I mean they liked me
but they really didn't like me because I
seemed aggressive to them. You know I I
wanted grades too much. So the word they
use is ambitious.
They thought I was ambitious. Ambition
is a dirty word in Canada. It means you
don't play by the rules. It means you're
too aggressive. It means you're too
pushy. Okay. All right. So this is my
application to Yale. As you can see, it
is a decent but not a still application.
So, how did I get in? Well, because
there was some information that they
could also derive from application that
made them interested in me. Okay, the
first is that I was poor.
So, I couldn't afford the application
fee. I had to um apply for a waiver for
my my application sorry for for my um
application. Okay. So I was poor because
I was an immigrant. So I was born in
China in 1976 and my family went over
when I was 1980 in 1983 when I was like
six. Okay. So I was a poor immigrant in
Canada. I transferred high school. So I
was I was I was in a poor high school.
Then I went to a rich high school. Okay.
So basically I switched neighborhoods.
My family lived in a poor neighborhood
and then I applied to go to a rich high
school in a different neighborhood. So I
I had to take the subway there every day
and I spent like half an hour on the
subway. And guess what guys, Canadians
don't like that. Okay? Canadians want
you to stay where you are and that's it.
So when I told my high school principal
that I was going to transfer um high
school, he got very upset and he said
that I'm going to write a discipline
letter. Okay, a discipline letter and
it's a very serious thing and I'm going
to put in your folder so that when you
apply to university they will know that
you were suspended from the school and
and like that that's basically like a
really bad thing. Okay. Um, so,
um, I got this disc this letter and when
when I went to the rich high school, I
had no friends. Why? Because they didn't
like me. Because they don't like it when
someone new comes in. Okay? I didn't
know their culture. I I'm sort of like
ambitious and I was great grubbing grade
grubbing. But the thing is I was
desperate because my family was very
poor and I wanted a better life. Okay. Okay.
Okay.
So again, they all they know all this,
okay? They know I'm a average student
and they know that I'm pushy and ambitious
ambitious
and that's why Yale let me in because
it's clear from this information that I
Okay, what what does that mean?
It means first of all I'm desperate.
Okay, desperate means like if I don't
get in Yale I'll probably kill myself. I
I mean if I didn't get a Yale I would
drown. I couldn't breathe. It was a life
life or death issue for me. They can see
the desperation. They want that. Okay.
Second thing is
I was insecure.
Okay. If you're insecure person, it
means you're not happy with who you are.
It means there's a void in your heart.
And therefore, the way to fill the
insecurity is through achievement.
Okay? So, if I made a million dollars,
I wouldn't be happy. I would need to go
make $2 million. If I made $10 million,
I would see people around me who had
$100 million and and I would be like, I
need I need to go make a billion
dollars. Okay? So an insecure person
sees the world as a competition and
and
um you're always achieving achieving
okay and that's how you succeed okay and
the third thing is I was not a moral
person okay I was ready to break the
rules in order to succeed transgressive
okay so I was not supposed to leave
leave my poor high school and go to the
rich high school. That's breaking the
rules in Canada. It's not illegal, but
you're not supposed to do that. And I
didn't care. The principal said I
couldn't do that. I said to him, "Screw
off. I'm still going to do it." I went
to the rich high school. Everyone said
to me, "You're not welcome." I said, "I
don't care. I'm I'm going to get my good
grades and I'm I'm going to get into the
Ivy League. I don't need you guys."
Okay? So, they saw the desperation. They
saw the insecurity. They saw the hunger
and the immorality. And this is part all
part of dissociative personality
disorder. And that's why they let me in
because it's possible I go crazy. Okay,
it's it's possible I become depressed,
but it's also possible I change the world.
world.
Okay, does that make sense? That's how
they think because you're a venture
capital firm. They're looking for the
riskiest investment with the best
possible return.
looking for people who can become
president of the United States, who can
change the world, who can make a name
for themselves. Because if they do that,
that makes Yel look good. So you
remember the name. Okay. It's all about
brand name recognition. Okay. Does that
make sense? All right.
Okay. So, you're like, "Okay, well, this
is fine, but and what's wrong with the
system?" Okay. Why would this be a bad
thing? It works. Why would why would
this be a bad thing? Well, the problem
with this is
because Yale, Harvard, and Princeton are
so powerful, not only are they looking
for people with trauma, okay, I was
traumatized as a child, but they're also
traumatizing the world. Okay, if that
makes sense.
All right. So the meritocracy
um exists to find people with trauma
and because it exists it's traumatizing
the world. Okay. So let me explain how
and why. Any questions so far?
Is this all clear? Yeah.
Um so let's say if like the Harvard and
Princeton these college students then
why why they're still like so famous
because um the system is and is is just
unreasonable for and unequal for the
students who have great uh who who have
a good grades.
>> Okay. All right. That's a really good
question. Okay. Why are Harvard
students, Harel students, Princeton
students so famous? Okay, the reason why
is when you do investment, you don't
take you don't do all risky investments.
Okay, you always have you always have
diversity in your portfolio. So the
majority of students are still students
who will be successful no matter what.
Why? Because their families are rich.
>> Okay, so if you're so we go go back to
example, right? those four you let in
the child who had who comes from three
generations of Harvard graduates okay
and that's a majority of people who get
into Harvard and then you let in the
athlete okay so the athlete the legacy
these are the people who are the
majority those are the safe investments
and then you have like 1%
of positions for people like me who like
you don't really know but there's
potential there so let's take a risk
okay and quite honestly it's a crapshoot because
because
Um, it's all very discretionary. So,
they're basically, it's all intuition,
okay? They don't have a formula for
this. They think, "This guy is
interesting. Let's just let him in."
Okay? And it's possible you on an essay,
you just wrote something really
interesting and they laughed and it's
like, "Okay, let's let's take a chance
on this guy." They have that 1%
of of positions available for risk.
Okay? Does that make sense? Okay. So,
I'm not the average Y student. I'm I'm
I'm I'm a marginalized Y student. Okay.
So um
this system the meritocracy the way it's
set up it creates trauma.
Okay so let me explain why. So let's
look at university Yale
then we'll look at high school.
Okay so you think oh you get into Yale
you can just coast you're happy life is
simple. Okay. The fact of the matter is
that when you get into Yale, Yale is
actually the Hunger Games. Have you read
the book The Hung the Hunger Games?
>> It is a relentless competition
because once you're in Yale, you're
still competing, but now you you're
competing against the most competitive
people in the world. Okay? So maybe at
the school, you can be the best student.
Your parents love you. You have lots of
good friends. You had a student
government. You feel really good about
yourself. You go to Yale and you
recognize that you're a nobody. your
parents are far away and you're now in
competition with the best students from
all around the world who all want to
kill you because it's a zero sum game,
okay? Own it, stronger, survive. And so
everywhere you go, it's a competition in
the classroom. Um, it's a seminar style,
so you're with 20 other students and the
professors asking you questions and
you're all competing to impress a
professor. Okay. Outside the classroom,
you're competing to get into clubs and
something called secret societies.
Okay? But you're also competing for
graduate school, for law school, for
medical school, for scholarships like
the road scholarship. Okay? So Yale, it
sounds nice. Once you get in there, from
the first day, it's an endless pursuit
of achievement. It's just competition
after competition after competition.
Wherever you go, you're being judged by
someone, okay? You're being judged by
the professor or your classmates. and
everyone's looking to like basically
kill each other because it's a it's a
it's a winner take all system. Okay, so
this is very traumatic and it makes you
so insecure that you go through life
thinking thinking like life is just like
that. Everyone's an enemy. I have to
achieve and achieve in order to feel
good about myself.
I cannot stop working hard otherwise I
will be killed by other people. Okay. So
people gradu from Yale have a deep sense
of insecurity even those who come from
the wealthiest families. Okay? They all
they're always looking to achieve and
that's what Yale wants. That's what
Harvard wants because these are the
people who will be most successful in
life. Okay? They're not happy with one
$1 million. They want a billion dollars.
Once they have the billion dollars, they
want $10 million. Okay? It never stops.
Okay? So to get into Yale, you have to
go for high school. and high school has
to train you for Yale. So, it's also a
competition, also a Hunger Games. Okay?
Okay?
And to train you for high school, the
your parents have to have a different
parenting system. Okay? So, I'll give
you two examples of parenting. Okay? The
first system, which is a healthy system,
you say to your child, I love you
unconditionally. No matter what you do,
I will support you. I will always be
here for you. And if you say that to
your child every day, your child will be
happy, fulfilled, and
and
um secure in life. But the person will
probably end up as a teacher. Okay? Now
you can also say to your child, I don't
have time for you, but if you win the
swimming competition or you place first
on uh your math test or if the teacher
say nice things about you, I'll take you
for ice cream. Okay?
And so it's a system that neglects
the child while at the same time demands
the child. Okay? And this is trauma.
And again,
most kids will be traumatized by the
system. But there are some kids who will
thrive in the system and the trauma will
encourage them or drive them to achieve
and achieve and achieve so that they get
into Yale so they can compete the Hunger
Games so they can go on in life and
compete some more. Okay? And that's how
the system is set up. And this is what
we call the meritocracy.
And and as I'll explain to you later on,
it is destroying America and the world.
All right? So that's how the system is
set up. And guess what, guys? Is it
different in China?
Not really. Okay? All right. So the
concept of meritocracy has conquered the
world. It started in America. It
actually started at Harvard, but now
it's conquered the entire world. And
that's why the world is so messed up.
Um, so as you say, the Yale gives you so
many uh negative emotions. So will you
still go to there if you got a second chance?
chance?
>> Okay, so that's a really good question.
Um, would I go there if I had a second
chance? And the answer is probably.
Okay, and the reason why is the set
system is set up that you don't really
have a choice, right? If you want to
move ahead in the world and you're poor,
what are your options? Right? So before
in America
um there are opportunities for poor
people to succeed. So for example,
George Washington, the first president
of United States, he never went to
college. Abraham Lincoln didn't go to
the Ivy League. And these are two are
considered the two greatest presidents
in American history. Unfortunately
today, if you look at the presidents, if
you look at the top people, they all
went to the elite schools. Okay? So the
system is set up so that if you if you
want to succeed, you have to go through
the Ivy League. But I do not plan to
send my kids to the Ivy League. Okay.
The last thing I would do is have them
in such a competitive traumatic
environment as the Ivy League. Okay.
Does that make sense? All right. All
right. Any more questions? So, so thank
you for your question. Any more
questions before I move on? Okay. So,
let's do a PBT and I'll explain to you how
how
America is destroying the world. Okay.
Sorry about this. Okay.
So I I I actually need to go back to the
beginning. Okay. Death by meritocracy.
All right. So let's go. Okay. So if you
from this um graph, what you can see is
this. In the year 1875,
the best universities in the world were
actually not in America. They were in
Germany. Germany was producing the most
Nobel Prize winners. Second was France
followed by the UK. Okay. and America
was non-existent but because of its
investments in research universities it
started to move up and up and then it it
won World War II so now it can import
all these German scientists and that's
why it dominates today so the best
universities in the world are now
America are in America Harvard Yale and
Princeton okay
um now as university get better and
better they're letting more students
okay and as you can See, more and more
American students are now going to
college. Before in 1940, it was only
about 5% of all males who went to
university. Today, it's almost um it's
35% basically. Okay, so that's a huge
step. And you would think that with the
increase in um college graduates,
America will become a much more equal
society, right?
Well, the opposite has happened. Okay.
Um, America has become a much more
unequal society. Um, there's something
called the genie coefficient which
measures inequality. And as you can see,
um, these past 20 years, it's gone way
up. It's among the highest in the world.
Meaning, America right now is one of the
most unequal societies in the world.
even though it it mo even though um over
a third of its young people go and
This is a graph of social mobility.
Okay. So uh the graph the top the top
this number shows you um if the number
of people who are doing better than
their parents as you can see in the year
1940 most people are doing better than
their parents but over time it's no
one's doing better than their parents.
Okay so your generation
um you will not do better than your
um in in income inequality has gone way
up the United States, the top 1% control
most of the wealth in the United States
as you can see from this map. Okay.
So even though America has become
wealthier, it's actually going to just
the 1%.
At the same time, univers universities
are becoming much more expensive. Okay?
So this is leading to student debt.
You can see how student debt, student
loans has gone way up. So in America,
student loans, student debt is the only
type of debt that you can never ever get
rid of. You can't declare bankruptcy.
You can this debt cannot be getting be
gotten rid of. Okay? When you die, it
passes on to your children. Okay? So um
this is a terrible situation for young
people in America. This is actually more
stark graph where tuition has gone way
up but wages have stayed pretty stagnant.
stagnant. Okay.
Okay.
Um and it's leading to depression among
teenagers. Okay. And um also the thing
about this graph is the middle class and
wealthy students are much more likely to
be depressed and identify as depressed
than poor students.
Right. So this is linear crisis in
America. So why are we why what what has
happened? Well, you have two individuals
who create the meritocracy. The first is
named James B. Conit and he was
president of Harvard for a couple
decades and he was a person who brought
brought the SAT in order to identify
scholarship students and he made Harvard
into the best research university in
America. Okay. And he was determined to
make Harvard into the best university in
the world as well as an institution of
power in America. Meaning that it would
now decide who wins and who loses in
America. The man who would help him is
named Harry Tony. He was dean of Harvard
who was in charge of a scholarship
program. Then he got a new job at a new
new organization new organization called
ETS. You know ETSs because it's
education testing services. They're the
ones responsible for the SAT, the TOEFL,
the AP, the GRE. Okay? So, these two
together create the modern meritocracy.
And as you can imagine, because you're
both from Harvard, the entire system is
set up to benefit Harvard.
>> Okay? And guess what, guys? It worked.
Okay? So, in the year 1940,
90% of applicants for Harvard got
5%. Okay, Stanford is even lower. Okay,
so now it's so hard to get to Harvard.
At the same time, look at the cash of
Harvard. Okay, this is called the
endowment. The amount of money they have
at Harvard is just ridiculous. They have
more money than most countries in the
world right now. Their endowment is
about $40 billion.
Okay? And it's just the past 30, 40 years.
years.
The success of the Harvard alumni is
just incredible. The most billionaires
in America, Harvard graduates, more
billionaires than any other place. Okay?
127 uh billionaires in 2024. Second is
Stanford. All right? No one else comes close.
close.
But not only that, but it's also anyone
with with over $und00 million. Most of
them graduate from Harvard. Okay? 7% of
all sorry 7 7%
of all people in America who have over
$100 million in net worth graduate from
Harvard. Okay. Then you have MIT,
Stanford, Pennsylvania, Columbia, Yale,
Cornell, Princeton. Guess what, guys?
Ivy League plus MIT. Okay.
Okay.
Okay. $30 million still Harvard is
number one. Okay. All right. So, their
graduates are the most successful in America.
Okay, but it's not just rich people.
It's everyone in the American elite.
Okay, most of them are graduates of the
elite universities. Okay, so this is a
article in Nature and they looked at all
the elite in America and what they
discovered is they all most of them went
to certain schools, the elite
universities. Um, and this is what's
causing a lot of political conflict in
America today. All right. So, let's just
look at what they found. The red is
Harvard graduates. Okay. The green are
Harvard plus Ivy League. And as you can
see, Harvard is everywhere. Even among
generals, admirals, there's Harvard
people. Okay? They dominate in terms of
philosophers and professors, but they're
everywhere. Even politer prize winners,
billionaires, New York Times bestselling authors,
authors,
Fortune 500 CEOs, federal judges,
senators. Okay, they're everywhere. And
that's the power of Harvard.
This is a this is a portion of of
Harvard graduates compared with the
general population. This is the portion
of Harvard graduates compared with the
elite. Okay, you see you see the contrast.
contrast.
So Harvard and Ivory League dominate
America today. Okay.
Now, what's amazing is
Harvard people don't know they dominate
Harvard. They don't know their elite. So
they did a survey and so they asked
people in these elite organizations, how
many people do you think in this
organization went to Harvard and other
elite universities? So the red is the
actual number, the blue is the estimate.
So Harvard, they really don't even know
they dominate America. Okay. If you ask
them like, "No, it's conspiracy theory."
No, you spread conspiracy theories.
We're just average people. There's no
way Harvard controls America.
All right. Now, um, as I mentioned at
Harvard, just going to Harvard is not
enough. You have to join the elite
social clubs, the social secret
societies. So at Harvard there's a place
like the at Harvard everyone should join
a more porcelain club. Okay. Um at
Princeton is the Ivy club. Okay. These
are secret societies or they're not
really secret but they're senior they're
senior societies. Okay. They're clubs
that everyone should join. At Yale it's
skull and bones. Okay. Skull and bones
is the most famous college secret
society. They're not that secret because
they they like to brag that that they're
um um skull and bones. They're so powerful
powerful
that they produce a lot of presidents, a
lot of rich people. Okay, 2004.
2004.
Okay. Um, George W. Bush versus John
Kerry. Guess what, guys?
John Kerry is the Democratic nominee.
George Bush is Republican nominee,
right? They're both skull and bones.
They're both Yale skull and bones.
Barack Obama. Okay, Barack Obama,
Colombia, went to Harvard Law School,
but he promised hope and change. He told
people in 2008 that the game is rigged
against them, that he would be their champion,
champion,
that he would make America more fair.
Okay? And he won. Why? Because well,
sorry. So this is this is his book
Dreams My Father. Um it was a New York
Times bestseller. It it basically
launched his political career.
Um he won because in 2008 the US economy
collapsed. Why? Because the US banks,
the US political system was controlled
by Ivy League graduates, by just people
who were friends with each other. And so
they cheated. They became corrupt. Okay?
They basically destroyed the American economy.
economy.
and people protested
uh against all this and Barack Obama
promised that we come in and do
something about it. Okay. Well, he did
he did do something about it. All right.
So, his e economic team, he appointed
quite a few individuals. These these are
the two most famous. Larry Summers who
was a Harvard graduate as well as as a
president of Harvard and he was treasur
secretary under Bill Clinton and he was
the guy who created the mess in the
first place and then Tim Gner who's a
Dartmouth graduate and he was a treasure
secretary. Okay, so these are friends of
Wall Street who came in to save Wall
Street. So a lot of critics say you know
it's Wall Street who created this mess
who destroyed the American economy. they
should be punished or at least they
should feel some pain. If you just let
them go and help them out and save them,
then you create a problem called moral
hazard. The idea of moral hazard is if
you don't have have any consequences for
your mistake, you will do it again.
Okay? And then there Summer said, "No,
no, you guys are seeing it incorrectly.
We have to save the American economy.
The goal is not to save the banks and my
friends. the goal is to save the
American people and the American economy
and that's why we're bailing out the
banks by giving them
free money. Okay? And then the critics
were like, "Well, how about all these
American homeowners who've lost their
homes? Shouldn't we help them as well?"
And and you know what Larry Summer said?
Moral hazard, guys. Do you understand?
Moral hazard. If we help out these
ordinary Americans, they won't learn anything.
anything.
Okay. So, as you can see, people were
angry. The banks got saved. The people
got screwed over. And guess what, guys?
Because because of this, who who did we
get? This guy.
>> Okay, this is why he won. There were
millions of Americans who voted for
Barack Obama because he promised hope
and change. And then they voted for
Donald Trump because he promised destroy
the system.
Okay, that's why we have Donald Trump.
Now, funny story about Donald Trump and
Barack Obama. So, Barack Obama and
Donald Trump were always adversaries. In
fact, Donald Trump led a movement uh
which accused Barack Obama of not being
being born in America. Um it's he's born
in America, but Donald Trump is saying
no, no, he he was actually born in
Nigeria. His father is from Nigeria. So,
Barack Obama made fun of Donald Trump.
2011 there's a big dinner, the White
House correspondence dinner where where
Barack Obama gets on gets on stage and
he makes fun of Donald Trump. Okay? He
says, "Hey, if Donald Trump ever became
president, this is what the White House
would look like. It'd be a casino." Okay?
Okay?
And this is funny, right? Donald Trump
was in the audience that day
>> and everyone was laughing at him and
that's what motivated Donald Trump to
become president of United States.
>> Okay. So thank Obama for Donald Trump.
Without Obama, there would be no Donald Trump.
>> Okay. So it's not just Barack Obama.
It's a lot of people in the American
political class. They're just soulless
um robots. Okay. This this this this man
is JD Vance. He's the vice president for
Donald Trump. like like Barack Obama, he
wrote a book, a really a bestseller
called Hillbilly Elegy. And it's
possible he becomes president of the
United States as well. Now, you may not
know this, but when he first came into
prominence, he opposed Donald Trump. He
thought that Donald Trump would be a
fascist and be a dictator and all that.
And then suddenly he changes his opinion
and said Donald Trump is the greatest
guy in the world. Okay, so these guys
like JD Vance and Barack Obama, they
have no ideas of their own. They're just
puppets. They just they just um tell
people what they want to hear.
All they know is achievement. Okay. So,
another example of this, this man's name
is Johnny Kim. Okay? And he'll probably
run for president of the United States
one day or at least be a US senator.
Why? Why do I mention him? Guess what,
guys? He was a Navy Seal, which is a
which is the top position you can ever
achieve in the military. He was he was a
secret soldier. Okay? He was he went to
Harvard medical school became a doctor.
Then he joined NASA became an astronaut.
>> This is like the ideal
Ivy League graduate. Okay. This is what
Harvard wants.
>> Now why is he able to do all this? Well, because
because
this is his Wikipedia entry. Okay. In
2002, the police went into his house and
killed his father. He was there and he
saw the police killed his father. He was
traumatized for life. His father was a
domestic abuser. The father was violent,
crazy, hit him all the time. Okay? So,
he has dissociative personality disorder.
disorder.
And in fact, if you look at most of the
of these really successful people, they
do have dissociative personality disorder.
disorder.
And that's why he was able to do all
that. Do all this because he turned the
trauma into an energy to drive him to
greater and greater achievement. The
problem though is he has no ideas of his
own. He's just a puppet, guys. Okay. So,
let's conclude and summarize
why the meritocracy is so great. Um, it
creates this extreme inequality in
America. Okay. So, um, it destroyed the
school system because all people care
about are the grades now, right? People
don't even care about learning anymore.
All all they want are the grades. In
fact, if you get a bad grade, you'll
probably complain to the teacher. In
which case, the teacher is not afraid to
teach you because if the teacher tries
to challenge you, make you a better
student, you'll just complain. Okay? And
your and if you don't if you don't
succeed, your parents will come and
complain. Okay? Uh, traumatized
children. Okay. Okay,
>> if you look at the rate of mental
illness in China, in America, it's just insane.
insane.
>> Death of American dream and social
mobility, you're not going to be richer
than your parents. You're just not. Uh
concentration of wealth, power, and
status in the 1%, the rich, the riches
get richer. Political divide between
left and right. Okay, so you have all
these political divisions right now in
America. Corruption. So, Wall Street
just steals and steals and steals and no
one can do do anything about it.
destruction of American identity,
globalization, immigration, woke
ideology, okay? Uh incompetent and
mismanagement. You look at COVID, you
look at the fact that America now has
$37 trillion in debt. An elite that is
soulless, mediocre, and unimaginative.
Okay? Barack Obama, JD Vance, this guy
Johnny Kim. Okay? They're just they're
just robots. Oh, and Donald Trump. Okay?
So, thank you American meritocracy for
destroying the world. Okay.
Okay.
I I know this was a lot to take in, but
You're all depressed and sad >> still
>> still
Yeah, we have a question. Thank you.
like is there a way to get rid of all
those bad uh impacts of this? I mean
like is there some suggestions for us to
help us better develop ourself uh not
just using this system?
>> Okay, great question. Okay, so
the real solution is to destroy the Ivy
League. Okay, and there are different
ways you can destroy the Ivy League. The
best way is to make them public, right?
To make to to have for the government to
come in and control them because a lot
of the issues stems from the fact that
these are institutions that only care
about their own power.
Okay? So, the government were in charge.
Um, they wouldn't be so powerful and
secretive. Okay? So, that's the best
solution. It's not going to happen
because Harvard, as you can see, it's
too powerful as well as Yale.
So, um, as an individual,
your best option is to recognize how
evil the system is and choose to
learn for yourself, okay? Because when
you go to Yale or Harvard or Princeton,
you think you're learning, but you're
not. You're being indoctrinated and
being brainwashed and being traumatized
to be turned into basically a robot
that's only focused on success. So you
need to recognize this. Be truthful to
yourself and focus on real learning.
Okay. So what do I mean by that? Okay.
So let me um sorry let let me um explain.
explain.
Okay. So success
what is real success? Well before the meritocracy
meritocracy
you didn't have to go to college but you
you need to have certain values and attitude.
attitude.
Okay. So, the first was to be open-minded.
What and so recognize that you have a
lot to learn and ask questions, learn
from other people. Okay?
And what people recognized was failure
is the best
teacher. Why? Because failure forces reflection,
reflection, right?
right?
and resilience
which leads to learning.
Okay. And this is a model that most
people understood before the
meritocracy. Keep an open mind, make
mistakes because if you make mistakes,
you will learn from them naturally and
then you can reflect and then you can be
become resilient and then you'll grow
and grow and then you will achieve your
true potential. Okay. The meritocracy
has destroyed this system. Why? Because
now we just want you to focus on grades.
Okay? And to get good grades, you cannot
fail. Do you understand? Failure now is
a problem. If you fail a class, you may
learn a lot from your failure, but it
won't look good on your GPA, right? It
will destroy your GPA and you won't get
into Harvard. Okay? You don't have
failure. You cannot have reflection. You
cannot have resilience. Also
before you had time for yourself.
Nowadays every minute is organized for
you right you come to school the school
day is very long then you have lots of
homework and then you have activities
then you have to have dinner then all
that you don't have any you don't even
have time to just think for yourself to
just chill and do what you want to do.
Okay it's intentional.
Okay. So, destroying reflection. You
don't have any resilience and so you
can't learn anything. So,
the so it's a really bad system because
if you're like me, okay, you're just a
normal person. Your family your family's
not rich or powerful and you go to Y
Harvard, it actually makes you fail in
life. Okay, let me explain why. Okay,
the first is it makes you arrogant.
It makes you it makes you think I went
to Yale therefore I know more than
everyone else so I don't have to ask
questions. I don't have to learn
anymore. Okay. Um second is that it
makes you you utilitarian.
You only care about things that help you
succeed. You're not actually interested
in real learning anymore.
Okay. And the third thing is all you
care about is success. So you're narrow-minded.
narrow-minded.
you don't want to explore. Okay, you're
not so creative anymore.
Okay, so it's it's a great system if you
come from a rich family because this
system trains you to to go into power.
But if you're just like me and you need
to work hard and be talented
uh and be committed to your passion in
order to succeed, this actually destroys
all that. And that's why
um probably most traumatized people in
America are those who came from poor
families who had the dream of going to
Ivy League who got in Ivy League and then
then
they just failed in life because they
don't have the ability to succeed. They
don't have the reflexive ability. They
don't they don't have the resilience.
They're not open-minded. They don't
accept failure. They're not committed to
learning. They're only committed to
success. Okay? So if you're rich, go to
Harvard and Yale and Princeton because
you'll become more rich. But if you're a
poor person,
going to these schools may be a mistake.
Okay? Certainly for me,
um it was a mistake because after I
graduated, I stumbled through life.
For me, it was just failure after
failure after failure because I want to
succeed right away.
Okay? I refused to put the time and
effort to learning a real skill and
learning a real passion.
Um and so um in my 30s, late 20s, early 30s, I became really depressed
30s, I became really depressed and honestly I thought about killing
and honestly I thought about killing myself and um I was playing video games
myself and um I was playing video games every single day. I just hid in my
every single day. I just hid in my parents' basement and so um I was
parents' basement and so um I was traumatized by it. And it took me a long
traumatized by it. And it took me a long time to get over the trauma and
time to get over the trauma and recognize this is a false system. Okay,
recognize this is a false system. Okay, Yale traumatized me and I need to
Yale traumatized me and I need to relearn to be open-minded, to embrace
relearn to be open-minded, to embrace failure, to be resilient, to embrace
failure, to be resilient, to embrace learning. Okay? And that's why I'm a
learning. Okay? And that's why I'm a teacher today to teach you guys that to
teacher today to teach you guys that to be successful in life, this is the
be successful in life, this is the formula. Okay? You don't need Harvard,
formula. Okay? You don't need Harvard, Yale, and Princeton.
Yale, and Princeton. All right?
All right? All right. Any more questions, guys?
All right. Any more questions, guys? Yep.
>> Well, um, can we do both like open-minded and get the grades and being
open-minded and get the grades and being rich?
rich? >> Okay.
>> Okay. >> Is it a possible thing?
>> Is it a possible thing? >> Yeah, that's a great question. Thank
>> Yeah, that's a great question. Thank you. Okay. All right.
you. Okay. All right. Okay. So, I'm I'm going to have to go
Okay. So, I'm I'm going to have to go into some psychology here. Okay. But
into some psychology here. Okay. But psychologists have discovered that we
psychologists have discovered that we have two modes of being. Okay. There's
have two modes of being. Okay. There's the altruistic
the altruistic mode and there's the utilitarian mode.
mode and there's the utilitarian mode. Okay.
Okay. Okay. So, utitarian is what we call
Okay. So, utitarian is what we call fight or flight.
fight or flight. >> Okay. Uh altruistic is just family and
>> Okay. Uh altruistic is just family and connections. So, imagine we're back in
connections. So, imagine we're back in the village. Okay. And most of the time
the village. Okay. And most of the time we are Yeah.
we are Yeah. But you but you said that all the
But you but you said that all the psychology is just brainwashing.
psychology is just brainwashing. >> Okay. I Yes. Psychology is not all
>> Okay. I Yes. Psychology is not all brainwashing. There's some valid
brainwashing. There's some valid validity to it. Okay. And so I'm not
validity to it. Okay. And so I'm not saying this is sic fact. I'm just saying
saying this is sic fact. I'm just saying this is a good way to understand how
this is a good way to understand how things work. Okay. All right. All right.
things work. Okay. All right. All right. So you you so in the village we spend
So you you so in the village we spend most of the time being close to other
most of the time being close to other people, right? We want to be friends
people, right? We want to be friends with other people. So we help each other
with other people. So we help each other out. But sometimes
out. But sometimes um we have to be very utarian. So for
um we have to be very utarian. So for example um if there's if there's not
example um if there's if there's not enough food okay or we're being attacked
enough food okay or we're being attacked guess what run man
guess what run man >> okay so there are these two mindsets and
>> okay so there are these two mindsets and what psychologist have discovered is
what psychologist have discovered is they are mutually exclusive. It's either
they are mutually exclusive. It's either one or the other. The other thing that
one or the other. The other thing that they discovered is the altruistic
they discovered is the altruistic mindset is what leads to creativity.
mindset is what leads to creativity. Okay. Creativity
Okay. Creativity um and passion and love.
um and passion and love. Okay. The and the utarian mindset is one
Okay. The and the utarian mindset is one that's focused on rewards.
that's focused on rewards. Okay. Like grades.
Okay. Like grades. So it is impossible to both want have
So it is impossible to both want have really good grades as well as help the
really good grades as well as help the world. But what's interesting is Harvard
world. But what's interesting is Harvard wants that. Okay. So in your
wants that. Okay. So in your application, you have to say to Harvard,
application, you have to say to Harvard, I have a passion. I will die for my
I have a passion. I will die for my passion, but at the same time, I want to
passion, but at the same time, I want to be a billionaire and I will die trying
be a billionaire and I will die trying to be a billionaire. At the same time, I
to be a billionaire. At the same time, I know it's important to be loyal to
know it's important to be loyal to Harvard. So I I will die being loyal to
Harvard. So I I will die being loyal to Harvard. Okay? And the only people who
Harvard. Okay? And the only people who can do this are people who have
can do this are people who have dissociative personality disorder.
dissociative personality disorder. Okay? And they can they can test for
Okay? And they can they can test for that in your application. They're so
that in your application. They're so experienced that they know exactly
experienced that they know exactly how you think. Okay? They all like,
how you think. Okay? They all like, "Come on, guys. You would not apply to
"Come on, guys. You would not apply to Harvard if you're not if you're not
Harvard if you're not if you're not utilitarian." Okay? Right?
utilitarian." Okay? Right? But you have to pretend you're not. And
But you have to pretend you're not. And that's what makes people crazy. Okay?
that's what makes people crazy. Okay? Because you're basically an actor.
Because you're basically an actor. Harvard wants the best actors in the
Harvard wants the best actors in the world. They want people to go for like
world. They want people to go for like pretending something they're not. Okay?
pretending something they're not. Okay? They want Barack Obama. The problem with
They want Barack Obama. The problem with Barack Obama is he's soless.
Barack Obama is he's soless. He stands for nothing. Okay? In 2008, he
He stands for nothing. Okay? In 2008, he promised people hope and change. The
promised people hope and change. The moment he gets in office, he's like,
moment he gets in office, he's like, "Sorry, man. I was just joking. Why did
"Sorry, man. I was just joking. Why did you believe me?"
you believe me?" Okay. Then in 20 2012, when it's time
Okay. Then in 20 2012, when it's time for reelection, he said, "Oh, you know
for reelection, he said, "Oh, you know what? I want hoping change." Okay? In
what? I want hoping change." Okay? In 2016, he's like, "You know what? Screw
2016, he's like, "You know what? Screw that. I'm I'm I'm gonna go water skiing
that. I'm I'm I'm gonna go water skiing now." Okay. So, the man is actually
now." Okay. So, the man is actually soulless, sense of nothing.
soulless, sense of nothing. All right. Any more questions, guys?
Okay, great. So, thanks for today and uh I'll see you guys after the break. Okay,
I'll see you guys after the break. Okay, so we'll continue this after the break.
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