On Fireside Chats, Mike talks to Chris about his new book, Twilight of the Elites. Chris explains how the American elite embraced meritocracy. Mike suggests some of the ways meritocracy can be critiqued, and Chris addresses them in turn. He describes the “iron law of oligarchy,” which says that all political movements inevitably produce elites. How did the egalitarian premise of meritocracy produce such an unequal outcome? And how does the new meritocratic elite justify itself?