What is different in capitalist civilization has been two things. First, the process of meritocracy has been proclaimed as an official virtue instead of being merely a de facto reality. The culture has been different. And secondly, the percentage of the world's population for whom such ascent was possible has gone up. But even though it has grown up, meritocratic ascent remains very much the attribute of a minority.
Interpretation
The quote discusses how meritocracy is celebrated in capitalist societies, yet it only benefits a small portion of the population.
Immanuel Wallerstein highlights the distinction of capitalist civilization in its elevation of meritocracy from a practical reality to a celebrated ideal. He observes that while the capability for upward mobility has increased for more individuals, the attainment of success through merit remains a privilege of a minority, thus critiquing the notion that capitalism provides equal opportunities for all.
In practice
This quote can be used in discussions about social mobility during a lecture on economics.
If we return to the two faces of individualism - individualism as the spur of energy, initiative, and imagination; and individualism as the limitless struggle of all against all - it can be seen how the two practices emerge from and limit the extend of the disequilibrating impact of the contradiction involved in the geocultural agenda.
Scientific culture created a framework within which individual mobility was possible without threatening hierarchical work-force allocation. On the contrary, meritocracy reinforced hierarchy. Finally, meritocracy as an operation and scientific culture as an ideology created veils that hindered perception of the underlying operations of historical capitalism.
The break from the supposedly culturally-narrow religious bases of knowledge in favor of supposedly trans-cultural scientific bases of knowledge served as the self-justification of a particularly pernicious form of cultural imperialism.
This is a steady, ceaseless process, impossible to contain as long as the economy driven by the endless accumulation of capital. The system may prolong its life by slowing down some of the activities which are wearing it out, but death always looms somewhere on the horizon.
Historical capitalism is a materialist civilization.
It is this third consequence that has been elaborated in greatest detail and has formed one of the most significant pillars of historical capitalism, institutional racism.
Today I know that all things are watching, that nothing goes unseen, that even wallpaper has a better memory than human beings.
History is always best written generations after the event, when clouded fact and memory have all fused into what can be accepted as truth, whether it be so or not.
One should absorb the colour of life, but one should never remember its details. Details are always vulgar.
All which is beautiful and noble is the result of reason and calculation.
Man is above all else mind, consciousness -- that is, he is a product of history, not of nature.
Observation is so wide awake, and facts are being so rapidly added to the sum of human experience, that it appears as if the theorizer would always be in arrears, and were doomed forever to arrive at imperfect conclusion; but the power to perceive a law is equally rare in all ages of the world, and depends but little on the number of facts observed.
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