The Meritocracy is not a lie; it is not perfect, either, but it is better than socialist wealth redistribution from the workers to the beneficiary class. For the meritocracy to work you need to have merit and work hard, and a bit of luck doesn’t hurt either. All the negatives you come up with for the meritocracy are just in your head. Advancement on Merit is what it means, and that is a noble idea.