Skip to main content

Meritocracy

This video presents the same text shown beside it, spoken and on screen. It adds nothing the text does not say.

State

Meritocracy is a system in which position is assigned purely by ability and effort — an ideal type no society has achieved, used as a standard for comparison.

Show

A hiring process open to all still selects from applicants whose preparation differed for twenty years.

Watch for

Treating an existing hierarchy as already meritocratic converts the ideal into a justification.