High‑stakes, mass exam systems create large pools of ambitious near‑elites who narrowly miss entry and can radicalize into counter‑elites. The Taiping Rebellion’s leader, Hong Xiuquan, turned repeated exam failure into a millenarian Christian movement that nearly remade China. Similar grievance dynamics may emerge wherever credential funnels are tight and social status hinges on one gate.
— It suggests modern meritocratic bottlenecks can be political‑risk engines, not just education policy choices, shaping how states design selection and opportunity.
Rob Henderson
2025.10.02
82% relevant
Henderson’s claim that ideological zeal often starts with status loss and thwarted ambition among downwardly mobile elites maps onto the model where near‑elites who miss gates radicalize into counter‑elites (e.g., early WASPs’ flirtation with socialism, today’s anxious highly educated elites).
Rob Henderson
2025.09.25
86% relevant
Henderson and Perry explicitly discuss Turchin’s 'surplus of elite aspirants' and how too many ambitious people chasing too few elite roles fuels radicalization—precisely the mechanism described in the Taiping‑style 'meritocracy’s rejects' thesis.
Rob Henderson
2025.09.09
82% relevant
The post quotes al‑Gharbi’s thesis that children from wealthy families facing downward mobility became a psychological engine of contemporary politics; this mirrors the 'near‑elite rejects' mechanism driving radicalization in the meritocracy idea.
Alex Tabarrok
2025.09.02
100% relevant
Hong Xiuquan’s four failed civil‑service exams preceding his Christian vision and rebellion; Tabarrok’s comparison to India’s mass exam frustration.