The main antithesis of Meritocracy might be called “the appearance of meritocracy”, that is, the pretense of expertise. As in, pretending to be an expert, and in particular, on a subject which you made up. When I say “appearance”, I mean the faking of it, pretending it.
This can also go by the name of “simulacra”, which in this case would be a simulation of being an expert.
It is possible to manufacture the appearance of merit in a particular, or even a manufactured-for-purpose, field of human concern.
For example, consider a society which was ostensibly Meritocratic, but in which the individuals were not sufficiently educated for critical thinking: it would be possible to manufacture the appearance of some crisis – man-made, natural, or otherwise – and, based on some manufactured fear of some invented threat, and a fear of “non-action”, a desired action could be similarly manufactured, suggested, and thus controlled for which the society would respond, follow, and then become obligated to at governmental levels.
This is called the “Chicken Little” failure point of Meritocracy.
Speaking in terms of some analogy, if the masses could be convinced that ‘the sky is falling’…
…then they can be convinced to do anything about it.
Of course, this isn’t only some mere analogy…is it…
It is in fact a very well-practiced trade, of making a living for some type of otherwise useless “human entities” on this planet, from ancient times, to now.
The invented threat can even be manufactured to actually occur, but this doesn’t change that it was all manufactured and not actually real in the first place. The actual threat, in either case, are the people entities inventing and manufacturing it.
Climate of Sophistry 
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed
(and hence clamorous to be led to safety)
by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
H. L. Mencken.
The hobgoblins have to be imaginary so that
“they” can offer their solutions, not THE solutions.
I agree with you and Derek, but the inventors of this scam will soon be gone and only the “Believers”, those who have been brought up to believe in the mystery, will remain. The fact that it was all a fabrication will be forgotten as the institutions that emerged from the original conversations, now so complex as to be beyond human control, take over and the myth becomes fact to following generations of the innocent. It is now too late to ‘out’ confessions from the myth makers and, I fear, the illusion to AGW and all that it entails will be with the elite power classes as given truth.
The historical evidence that AGW was invented to serve political ends in the 1980s is being archived as we speak and as sceptics struggle to unravel the fake science. Soon that evidence will be erased from social consciousness and nothing but the myth will remain.
We have historical evidence that humanity is capable of going down this terrifying track. The recent history of the emergence of the Aryan myth in central Europe provides all the warning signals. That myth was exploded by devastating wars. The AGW myth is attached to another even more powerful notion – that civilised man is the enemy of nature and should self-destruct civilisation in the interest of saving world resources for human survival at a more ‘natural’ (pre-enlightenement) level. Just look at Agenda 21 and how it has infiltrated and undermined democratic process throughout the world; so effectively that the notion of the enlightened individual will be demonised and buried for ever. AGW is just a stepping stone to the destruction of the individual. Welcome to the Dark Ages2!
We’re in the crisis-era according to the Strauss-Howe Generational Theory. This is when real, physical wars are supposed to break out and lots of people die. The anti-human agenda of the alarmists is part and parcel of the crisis.
However, I wonder if this pseudo-crisis of climate alarm has been manufactured FOR avoiding a real bloody war. If you assuage society’s desire for war and bloodshed by directing their combative energy into something which is utterly useless, i.e. fighting the climate, the weather(!), and the people are so yearning for war that they’ll take whatever avenue for war they can independent of any sort of rationality, then climate alarm fills that purpose. Like Nazi Fascism, we can hope and even expect that this mental/emotional aberration will soon be destroyed, a new prosperous day will come with the next generation. Problem is we have another decade or so before we’re out of this phase of the cycle, and lots of people are still expecting/desiring war and collapse, etc.
I have a neighbor with whom I can’t talk to about the fact that all the glaciers in the world are not melting and the sea-level is not rising and going to flood major cities soon. He absolutely refuses to hear me out. So, of course, I don’t talk about it.
We can only hope that the weather stays relatively warm–although certain reputable climatologist are saying that we are now going into another mini-ice-age, which will be bad enough by itself. If we actually go into a full-blown ice-age (all things considered, that is not an impossible scenario) all the people north of a certain parallel will have to move south. Then there will be wars. Big, nasty, major wars… and a whole lot of starvation, too.
Agreed D.M. A mini ice age would likely be enough to do that.
Do a search on “psychology of climate change”. Scary reading.
A mini ice age now should rid us of the AGW fraud and junk science in general. It will also be a test of modern man’s breeding response to longer term cold weather. Fertility is already declining where technology takes care of our needs. A long duration maxi ice age is possible starting within the next 10,000 years. I suspect man will be sufficiently aware of it’s approach and global population will shrink and relocate accordingly. We should be quite comfortable. Man will have colonies in the solar system. We will by then be aware of many planets out there that could support our form of life. Might even be in touch with some. Understanding the laws of nature and using them to our advantage will still be ‘what we do’. For those who want a supernatural entity I will simply add He gave us brains and He expects us to use them.
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