This sounds like an astoundingly appealing philosophy to one who is towards the top of this meritocracy pecking order, and utterly repugnant to anyone downward.

This sounds like an astoundingly appealing philosophy to one who is towards the top of this meritocracy pecking order, and utterly repugnant to anyone downward. It's so self-serving in that regard, that the "conflict of interest" in those who benefit in extolling it as the order for all...well, it makes the whole thing highly questionable. Is it the best way because it's the best way, or because it's best for you? It's really hard to see anyone who is on the wrong end of this system arguing for it, so in the end they would have to be subjugated? That rarely (never?) works out (if it can be considered a good thing to work out at all...), so it's clear to me that a hard-liner meritocratic system is never really going to work.