“Meritocracy” is an old anti-concept and one of the most contemptible package
deals. By means of nothing more than its last five letters, that word
obliterates the difference between mind and force: it equates the men of
ability with political rulers, and the power of their creative achievements
with political power. There is no difference, the word suggests, between
freedom and tyranny: an “aristocracy” is tyranny by a politically established
elite, a “democracy” is tyranny by the majority—and when a government protects
individual rights, the result is tyranny by talent or “merit” (and since “to
merit” means “to deserve,” a free society is ruled by the tyranny of justice).