Meritocracy is a giant myth (often completely unconnected to the underlying data), but it's important to recognize that it's just the latest in a long line of m

Meritocracy is a giant myth (often completely unconnected to the underlying data), but it's important to recognize that it's just the latest in a long line of myths that have been told to justify inequality. For centuries, the wealth of the nobility and the clergy vis-a-vis the third estate was justified by appealing to the harmony of a tripartite society. In the ownership societies of the 19th century, inequality was often justified by pointing to the various rules and laws that governed and sacralized property rights (which were theoretically available to anyone) upon which stability and good governance depended.