I believe it was. Young’s coinage and novel were satirical. The most prevalent definition of meritocracy is, as per Wikipedia: “a political system in which economic goods and/or political power are vested in individual people on the basis of talent, effort, and achievement, rather than wealth or social class.”
Which is not to say that this is being achieved: it’s aspirational.
Appropriating a perfectly serviceable term and goal, like meritocracy, and redefining it on the basis of a satire (or as Avery_Thorn said, because jerks use the word incorrectly and assume it to be in force when it is not) isn’t helpful. It’s a bit like describing Jonathan Swift as “that baby eater”, or calling the Hindus or Navajos Nazis for having used swastikas.
Markovits is certainly correct in his assessment of the many ills of the current environment. My original point (about ‘elites’) was that criticism of the people trying to excel within this environment has become too routinely linked with the justifiable criticisms of its flawed implementation & manipulators of it.
