Quote Meritocracy Unquote
The word "meritocracy" comes from a satire, <i>The Rise of the Meritocracy</i>. It would be as if people were using the word "doublethink" like it was a great idea.<p>The author's point is that social class is now guarded through education, and the most successful people give their children the best education. There is no longer the opportunity to work your way up from the mail room to the CEO chair. All the positions above a certain grade need a college degree, and often an advanced degree. Unlike the old aristocracies, there's no <i>noblesse oblige</i>; those at the bottom deserve to be there.<p><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2001/jun/29/comment" rel="nofollow">http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2001/jun/29/comment</a><p>One of the great things about computer programming (and the open culture of programming as it is now) is that we can achieve merit <i>outside</i> of an institutionalized system.<p>Edit - I didn't expect this to be the topvoted comment... so just to restate, even programming isn't perfect here. There are still many filters and barriers. I think raganwald's point is that our filters are often sufficient to exclude vast swathes of deserving people, if we robotically look only for certain kinds of objective merit.