The Meritocracy of an Army At War

What is meritocracy? Why is it cherished and self-justifying in some contexts, and an object of ridicule in others? I have been reflecting on these questions, and I think I figured it out how to think about it. War is a verifiable domain, and provides dense and low bias feedback. By low bias I mean the platonic ‘true’ objective of the institution aligns well with what you can measure, e.g. how…