The meritocratic generation
Starting in the 1950s, droves of hardworking and intelligent individuals have become the meritocratic society’s privileged model students. Economic conditions were a major part of the process, as the world war was over, and an era of forty year long prosperity and unstoppable growth had begun in the Western societies.
You just walked through a factory gate and got a job (nowadays you can be glad if you won’t get shot down). Necessities, stable, secure jobs and even higher education were readily available to the masses as a result of generous social policies and low cost tuition.
The system worked rather smoothly. Through tests, they decided who’s suitable for a particular position, then the ethos (diligence, work ethic, loyalty) of the lucky applicant was being put into probation.
The baby boomer generation has received everything it takes to prosperously live in the system as a gift. High level of living standards, high-quality and accessible education, generous social network. Many Bill Gateses and Steve Jobs’ rose to the top, who became the celebrated idols of the meritocratic society. The loud mantra of „if they could do it, yo can do it too” was frequently chanted as the „national hymn” of mighty free market capitalism.
Boomers, gaining wealth according to their work ethic, have split the entire corporate sphere and even countries among their own social circles. Dorm roommates became politicians ruling over the population. They sat in the velvet chair, and, while trampling on their servants, pushed the plebs the mantra: there’s meritocracy, people! We are at the top because we are the smartest, most talented, most diligent among you! Now worship your masters!
As boomers got older, they were no longer impressed by the requirement of constant innovation, risk-taking and maintenance of costly welfare institutions. So they neatly pulled up the ladder behind themselves and kicked their descendants back into the pit full of pickets. Before that, it was enacted into law that the destitute stinky kids have a duty to support the retired mummies of the sociopathic generation.
Explanation: the author of this article is Hungarian. In Hungary, the currently ruling Fidesz party was founded by dorm roommates who have split up the whole country among themselves. The requirement of younger generations unconditionally supporting their parents was enacted into law a few years ago, when it became obvious that the retiring boomer generation cannot be fully supported through the state’s pension funds. Young adults have the obligation to support their elderly relatives, even when they’re already living in a different country or if the neglect of their parents was a result of serious abuse originating from their childhood. Parents, not supported by their descendants on call, have the legal right to sue their children. Please note that the obligationary financial support is not an alternative to the pension system. The working youth still has to pay into the pension fund as well, and its rate is automatically being deducted from people’s salary by their employer.
A generation stood out in whom there was nothing outstanding: merely the system was nice enough to them. Then, coincidentally, they forgot themselves residing at the top of the pyramid.
The philosophy of a serpent biting its own tail
In the wake of the above mentioned processes, the true essence of a modern meritocracy emerges. A social class that raises itself to pedestal seeks ideological confirmation for proving the legitimacy of its lordship. In this endeavor, they are being excellently covered by the ideal of meritocracy.
Along the lines of a philosophy that embraces the image of an ouroboros, the elites sitting at the top of the pyramid declare that they have the eternal right to rule over the population like Turkish pashas, as they are being called to do so by their talents, diligence, and ethos. Nothing proves this better than the fact that they are sitting at the top of the pyramid. All the others proved themselves to be lazy, unworthy, too weak in character to reach the desired peak.
Meritocracy will be engraved into the pages of the history books as the most autofellatory ideology ever conceived by the human mind. Its believers cannot invoke the often played out jolly joker that what we have now is not a meritocracy. Today’s destructive power structures and moral hazards were exclusively built on the foundation of a society organized according to meritocratic principles.
The boomer generation (a generation born between 1945-65) was entirely raised in meritocracy, as all its prerequisites were fulfilled during their life path. Their success was not seriously hindered by the origin, wealth and rank of their parents. Before their reign, politics was not as intertwined with capital and wealth as it is today. Existing differences have been largely smoothed out by social benefits and affordable higher education available for virtually anyone.
They cannot even be called lazy or stupid, because although most of the opportunities for ascension were handed to them on a golden plate, and it was easier to make a killing on the field of innovation than in today’s oversaturated markets, most of them still dived into the world of business. Grinding for seventy hours a week was not an unusual habit of theirs if they really had faith in the success of their business.
So meritocracy has worked out for boomers as it should. A huge, youthful generation had been raised, full of innovative entrepreneurs equipped with fresh ideas to replace the previously entrenched elites. What could go so wrong then?
Meritocracy as justification for systematic oppression
Meritocracy is bounded by the same falsified system of value judgment as other kinds of man-made mind programming. They come up with something stupid then uncritically assume that the system will work according to their ideas with clockwork precision. Including, of course, a plethora of people equipped with free will who have nothing better to do than to follow the instructions of the hive mind’s queen bee.
Meritocracy can be debunked with one single well-directed question: why do its adherents imagine that individuals with the most impeccable performance in ethical, moral, industrious and intellectual grounds have a motive to sit on top of a pyramidal system?
According to meritocracy, excellence in certain abilities automatically implies a prominent position among the ranks of hierarchy. The rebuttals on this claim can be traced back to biblical times. Anyone who wants to bring real change to this world, to set up a new moral order, an ethical compass, will not only not be put on a pedestal, but will be stoned to death or crucified by the system. There are also plenty of modern-day examples. Society does not want to see Nikola Teslas on the top, but storytellers who remorselessly lie that thanks to their ruling efforts, Canaan, vainly chased for many millennia, has finally come to Earth, or at least it’s peeking around the corner.
Who have an irresistible urge to rule? That’s right, the bullies, the sociopaths, the criminals, who can cherry pick anything out of the giant toolbox of ideologies to justify the oppression they carry out.
Meritocracy, like its other like-minded counterparts, is an assembled ideology for the approval of systematic oppression. Its most dangerous feature is that it’s seemingly impersonal and does not discriminate according to personal sympathy. This is, of course, just a spectacle, but since most people only believe what they see with their blind eyes, so little cheating is enough to justify the best disguised dictatorship of all time.
Meritocratic selection produces an even more aggressive and oppressive elite than a standard autocracy or aristocracy. If people in power put certain layers of society into a situation that threatens them with physical destruction, for example by sending them to war, most will only deify the ideology dictated by the ruling class until its consequences personally affect them. May another Adolf Hitler be on stage, the initial enthusiasm and courage quickly wanes when comrades begin to shout after their mother in their death throes (watch „All Quiet on the Western Front” for visual demonstration). Physical coercion works for a little while, but all the magic dissipates very soon.
The consequences of ideologies originating from the mind are a bit different.
