MERITOCRACY IN JAPAN
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      Paradoxically, in other words, the more egalitarianism has grown, the more inequalities — the ineluctable inequalities of genetic endowment — have come to count.
      I cannot give correlated time series in proof of this proposition; I can only appeal to commonsense perceptions. In pastoral societies almost anyone could master the arithmetic needed for the simple purposes to which arithmetic was put, like counting sheep. Even calendrical arithmetic was simple enough that few astronomers had sons who were not able to- grasp the secrets of the trade over a long childhood training. With only primitive voice-training techniques, most people could manage acceptable standards of yodelling. Today, only tenors whose sophisticated training shows them to be gifted get listened to. And the skills required to run an atomic power plant or a jumbo jet, to design an integrated circuit or an experimental corrective institution, are such that it is not within the capacity of all, or even of a large percentage, of the population to acquire them in a reasonable period of time. And it is very much in the interests of the rest of us, firstly, that those who do these jobs should have acquired those skills, and secondly, that people should not embark on the lengthy and expensive training to acquire them unless there are strong reassuring indications that they will succeed. And among the various dimensions of talent — musical and athletic talent, telly-personality charm, and so on — it is the general all-purpose mental talents, measured by IQ tests, which are most widely seen as relevant.
      The economy of this kind of talent, in other words, becomes of increasing importance for social efficiency, and through a variety of institutional initiatives, partly by government, partly by those in charge of work organizations, and partly by those looking after the interests of occupational groups, the devices for channelling talent begin slowly to accumulate. China started two thousand years ago, of course, but in Britain the first formal ability tests for jobs came with the East India Company in the nineteenth century, then for the home Civil Service, finally even for the Foreign Service. ...
      [...] Once again, looking at Japan as Japan is, can help us to see Britain as Britain might be becoming. Suppose that all these signs of the times do indeed point in a Japanese direction. Should we be applauding — as I, by and large, have endorsed — all the trends which seem to be promoting the development of Community model forms? Or should we be drawing back in horror? And if so, to what? If we see a New Hierarchical Order emerging as the given end-product of the growth of meritocracy, should we then let Oxbridge admissions be determined once again by family pull or by money?
      I imagine not. But we should, at least, be a bit more aware of what is happening, of the long-term consequences of present trends, and of correc-