This is your regular reminder that the world of 1984 was a meritocratic one. > Admission to either branch of the Party is by examination, taken at the age of s

This is your regular reminder that the world of 1984 was a meritocratic one. > Admission to either branch of the Party is by examination, taken at the age of sixteen. If Smith had done better on his GCSEs he would've been in the Inner Party. > The Party is not a class in the old sense of the word. It does not aim at transmitting power to its own children, as such; and if there were no other way of keeping the ablest people at the top, it would be perfectly prepared to recruit an entire new generation from the ranks of the proletariat. see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Thoughts_on_James_Burnham https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Thoughts_on_James_Burnh...