Some Thoughts on the Criteria of Talent Selection

(Minghui.org) After Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election, he began to pick members for his cabinet. As usual he selected people based on their credentials, including those who are relatively young with little political experience.

Back in 2016 when Trump won the presidential election for the first time, he vowed to clean up corruption and bad practices in government agencies. With little political experience himself, however, he did not have a strong team and had to change cabinet members again and again. Later on, he recruited many officials with military backgrounds, hoping they would be better. But in the end, he still did not achieve a desirable goal.

Eight years have passed, and Trump is different now. His accumulated political experience has given him a clearer understanding of how to select people.

After winning the election this time in 2024, he has selected a number of successful business professionals and entrepreneurs to be cabinet members. Even some from the news media have been selected. For example, he has proposed a Fox News host would to Secretary of Defense and another Fox co-host to be the transportation secretary.

As a Falun Dafa practitioner, I have no intention on commenting on whether these nominees are qualified for these positions. I just want to discuss the criteria for selecting talented individuals. In traditional Chinese culture, people were chosen based on their talents or merits (high moral values). From a young age, people studied textbooks about Confucius and other traditional values. Very often, those with both talents and merits were selected.

But society is different now, and traditional values are seldom taught in school, either in China or overseas. When students adopt degenerate moral values, they are deviating from the right path and some even start to believe in communism.

When choosing a candidate, talent itself is not enough, since merit is also important for ensure the person’s integrity so that he or she will not compromise the national interest for personal gain.

But how to find people with merits in such a society? I believe that those who believe in the divine and who are successful in society meet both criteria. That is because a person with faith in the divine will not be easily led astray. Trump himself is a good example. As a sincere Christian, he always attributed success to the divine; when encountering difficulties, he also prayed to the divine for help and received blessings.

Whether a person believes in the divine or not is an important criterion. This is not just limited to Trump’s selection of cabinet members. It may also be beneficial in other areas such as a company’s employee recruitment, team building, and other circumstances.

“God bless America” has profound meaning. To receive blessings, one first must be willing to be protected by the divine and deserve the blessing. Following one’s conscience and also striving to be better will lead to a better future, while, moral degeneration will lead to dire consequences.