In this episode, I explore Michael Young's eerily prophetic 1958 satire "The Rise of the Meritocracy" and its disturbing relevance to our modern world. Young's dystopian vision—where intelligence becomes the ultimate currency and society fractures along cognitive lines—serves as a mirror to our contemporary obsession with metrics, rankings, and individual achievement.

I examine how our educational institutions have become factories of standardisation rather than gardens of wisdom, and how the workforce increasingly rewards technical skill while devaluing essential human qualities. The episode goes into the dangerous myth that success is purely a product of talent and effort, ignoring the tilted playing fields that define our reality.

As populist movements gain momentum worldwide, I reflect on Young's most chilling prediction: that the growing alienation of those deemed "less intelligent" might ultimately lead to the collapse of meritocracy itself. Join me in considering how we might forge a more sustainable future—one that values compassion and creativity as highly as intellect, before Young's satirical prophecy becomes our lived reality.

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