The narrative of meritocracy is so old and running out of fashion. Merit confers privilege and you can spend privilege in many things but the most important thi

The narrative of meritocracy is so old and running out of fashion. Merit confers privilege and you can spend privilege in many things but the most important thing you can spend it on is investing in maintaining that privilege via less than mertitocratic means. Privileged classes have become very good at keeping the privilege: they have built a large moat (wall?) around them at the top floor of the social ladder using the bricks of the ladder itself. It's so hard to climb the ladder and so hard for those at the top to fall.