What’s So Great About Excellence? (1981)

The Canadian hockey team is a bit like the US basketball team. When we take the ice, it's highly likely we're going to win.

In 2006, the coaches decided to build the team from players who never really got a fair shot. The thinking was that we have the great coaches, and these players just never got a shot.

We (Canada) lost in the quarter finals, and when asked why, the coaches said that even though the players had as much talent as the A team. They didn't have the commitment to win. They didn't show up to practice, or practice as hard.

These were the "marginally successful", that just needed a bit of help.

Sure, it's only one anecdote, but an interesting reference point.

Scholarships are about picking up people most likely to do great and giving them a chance. It is not just a medal for past achievements, it is to that they achieve more in the future.

> Shouldn’t they go to the marginally unsuccessful, that with a little help, would be successful?

There actually are programs like that although Trump closed some of them. Programs designed to teach at-risk youth marketable skills. There is (or was) also help for students with various learning disabilities. The two are not in opposition. These things exist, but are under constant attacks from the right.

The point of the MacArthur Foundation is basically to launder the MacArthur name in the eyes of the public. So that when people see "MacArthur" they associate it with prestige and — more importantly — the excellence of its recipients, not its sleazy origin. Hence why recipients are only chosen when they have proven that their names are useful for the MacArthur Foundation.

In your example, the MacArthur Foundation wouldn't be giving out scholarships to high performing students, they'd be giving money to people like Donald Knuth. In other words, people who have already shown that they didn't need the money to be successful and don't really need the money to continue performing at a high level. Of course, it isn't a complete waste, but it doesn't go towards developing the next Donald Knuth. The MacArthur Foundation isn't "promoting excellence", it's "celebrating" the excellence in which it took absolutely no risk in developing. As the author says "The enterprise is not merely silly, but snooty: an exercise in invidious distinction for its own sake."