Historical note: meritocracy was invented - or first used in large scale - in Imperial China some fifteen centuries ago - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial

Historical note: meritocracy was invented - or first used in large scale - in Imperial China some fifteen centuries ago - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_examination https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_examination About a century ago you could still read American university stories mentioning try-hard "black shoe" students, I suppose by contrast with the spats-wearing and better socially connected ones.