Three Science Fiction Stories That Reveal the Truth About Meritocracy

Meritocracy is our modern religion. It's a just-so story for the just-world fallacy. We want to believe that wealthy, powerful people deserve all the power they wield over the rest of us, because otherwise we're gazing up at an unfairness that feels crushing. And the notion of upward mobility, that talented people can pulling themselves up by their bootstraps, is hardwired into our collective consciousness.

Lately I've been thinking a lot about the movie Trading Places, though I haven't had tim...