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I agree that merit should include character. The reality is that, in meritocracies, it typically doesn’t as capacity (IQ and executive function) is much easier to measure than character.
Having a bureaucracy too large for the available talent is a serious issue. It is clearly a problem for the Late Roman state, as I briefly note here: lorenzofromoz.net/p/dow…
I agree that merit should include character. The reality is that, in meritocracies, it typically doesn’t as capacity (IQ and executive function) is much easier to measure than character.
Having a bureaucracy too large for the available talent is a serious issue. It is clearly a problem for the Late Roman state, as I briefly note here: https://www.lorenzofromoz.net/p/downward-resilience.
My Darwinian explanation for the Great Silence is that advanced technology overwhelms species adaptations.