The End of Meritocracy

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Every ending once had a beginning, even in a new broken world.

Over the past few months, I've seen and read a lot. Maybe even too much. Yet despite all of it, one realization has stayed with me: meritocracy, much like the American Dream, is nothing more than a utopian buzzword.

After years of hard work, dedication, and persistence, I've finally come to understand what that feels like. Some lessons only make sense once you've lived them yourself.

Today's topic affects a lot of people, and I can say with confidence that it's never been more relevant than it is today.

What continues to amaze me, is what people are expected to do these days. Just look at job postings: "10+ years of experience with XU_X334" (yes, I'm exaggerating... but honestly, it doesn't even feel like it anymore). The requirements are so detached from reality that hardly anyone could possibly meet them. At the same time, many institutions claim to rely on highly qualified professionals, while everything behind the scenes is falling apart. To me, that's a failure that an entire generation now has to pay for, despite never having chosen this situation.

This post is for many people my age who know exactly what I'm talking about. People who are constantly being molded from the outside, expected to become the perfect final piece of chocolate. But doesn't everyone love chocolate?

I spend a lot of time online, and recently I came across a post where someone made a surprisingly fitting comparison:

"Water is just water. In one supermarket it costs next to nothing, somewhere else it's suddenly ten times the price."

That analogy stuck with me. Honestly, I couldn't think of a better one.

Meritocracy is supposed to create opportunity. It's supposed to open doors. Remember when your grandfather used to say, "Work hard in school and you'll have a better life than we did." There was once this idea of a society that rewarded education, competence, curiosity, and discipline. The word merito—the Italian root meaning "merit"—was tied to those very values.

But what do we see today?

People unwilling to walk a single extra mile. People upgrading to AI 2.0 because they no longer know how to function without it. People sitting across the negotiation table (those on "the other side," as I like to call them) who demand endlessly while offering little in return.

Was that promise really worth believing in?

The promise that social mobility was possible, even without privileged starting conditions.

The promise that hard work alone would eventually pay off.

The promise that social injustice would gradually disappear.

Now we hear people shouting, "Go into the trades! We need doers, not thinkers."

Why not just say what they really mean?

"As a society, we've decided to devalue the cognitive achievements of an entire generation because apparently everyone's become too stupid."

Honestly, I'd find that more sincere than all the polished slogans and recruitment campaigns.

I see university graduates saying things like this.

I see workers defending it with complete conviction.

And what I see is a system that has failed—one that has broken every promise it ever made.

I don't want this post to be a collection of statistics or a call for revolution. I just want to leave you with one final thought:

If all of this is true, then why did it work for decades only to be rewritten overnight?

Did I miss something?

Or are we simply being sold another convenient narrative?

I'll let you decide.