Pluck vs Luck - Meritocracy vs Elitism

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Pluck versus luck: Meritocracy emphasises the power of the individual to overcome obstacles, but the real story is quite a different one.

Occupants of the American meritocracy are accustomed to telling stirring stories about their lives. The standard one is a comforting tale about grit in the face of adversity – overcoming obstacles, honing skills, working hard – which then inevitably affords entry to the Promised Land. Once you have established yourself in the upper reaches of the occupational pyramid, this story of virtue rewarded rolls easily off the tongue. It makes you feel good (I got what I deserved) and it reassures others (the system really works).

But you can also tell a different story, which is more about luck than pluck, and whose driving forces are less your own skill and motivation, and more the happy circumstances you emerged from and the accommodating structure you traversed.

[The article's author is American, but the problem he describes seems even more applicable to the Cambridge-Five Public School conveyor belt of WW2 Britain.]