The Merits of Nepotism and Boasting
8th December 2018
Theodore Dalrymple misses the Good Old Days.
If you try to be fair, you have to institute methods of being so; moreover, you have not only to be fair, but to be seen to be fair, for fairness, at least in the selection of people for employment, is a quality that cannot be a light that is hidden under a bushel.
Now, in order to be fair, the method must be formalized and not open to the influence of personal prejudice or connection. In practice, this means forms and questions whose answers have an agreed weight ascribed to them in advance. And this in turn means that the person selected will be the person who knows best how to fill forms and answer questions according to the most desired answers. This is not the way to find people of great ability. It is the way to find people of petty personal ambition.