Books, Arts & Manners: Foretelling The Bell Curve

The Rise of the Meritocracy, by Michael Young (Transaction, 180 pp., $18.95)

I+ E = M. The formula tells us that intelligence plus effort equals merit, and, early in the twenty-first century, it is the guiding principle of British society. Or at least that was the conceit of Michael Young back in the 1950s, when he was writing this utopian (or is it dystopian? Young himself seems unsure) fantasy about a future world in which people are systematically sorted into the jobs best suited for them, and IQ tests are the principal sorting mechanism. Does that perchance sound familiar?

DS

About the Author

Daniel Seligman

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British Conservative Party

Literature

Education

The Rise of the Meritocracy, by Michael Young (Transaction, 180 pp., $18.95)

I+ E = M. The formula tells us that intelligence plus effort equals merit, and, early in the twenty-first century, it is the guiding principle of British society. Or at least that was the conceit of Michael Young back in the 1950s, when he was writing this utopian (or is it dystopian? Young himself seems unsure) fantasy about a future world in which people are systematically sorted into the jobs best suited for them, and IQ tests are the principal sorting mechanism. Does that perchance sound familiar?