Here is a brilliant piece by the philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah, on the life and work of Michael Young, a British politician and sociologist. Young wrote a satirical novel in 1958 called The Rise of the Meritocracy. The book looks at life in the UK in 2033, a dystopian society in which intelligence and merit have replaced social class. Young did not intend that the idea of Meritocracy would be seen as a good thing.
