The Flip-Side Of Meritocracy

Douthat examines it:

Part of the problem with meritocracy is that it homogenizes in the nameof diversity: It skims the cream from every race and class andpopulation, puts all of the best and brightest through the sameeducational conveyor belt, and comes out with a ruling class that'scosmetically diverse but intellectually conformist, and that tends to huddle together rather than spreading out to enrich the country as a whole. This is Christopher Lasch's lament in "The Revolt of the Elites"—...