First published in 1975, The Rise of the Mediocracy is exhaustive, disturbing, devastating, yet often very funny. It explodes the myth of meritocracy and the pretence of improved living standards. While the doom- boomers blame all our ills on trigger happy politicians, Arab oil sheikhs or polluting multinational corporations, the intractable problems of the world have come about through a multiplication of individual attitudes and actions whose end result is industrial anarchy, civil disorders, population explosion and declining standards.
Many of the ‘good things’ of life- democracy, education, sociology, communications, growth, the welfare state- have contributed to the overall neurosis, trivialization and greed. As these good things will not likely be abandoned, the problems of contemporary society may well be insoluble. But if there are solutions they are unlikely to be implemented because everywhere there is an elitism not of meritocracy but of mediocracy, whose rise can be traced from the 18th century and has accelerated in recent years. No other book relates the discrediting of religion and politics, business and professions so plausibly to chaos in the arts, diminishing returns in education and curbless crime in society. This interdisciplinary book is an interesting read for students of humanities and social sciences.
Introduction Part I: Theoretical 1. Myth of Meritocracy 2. Rise of Democracy 3. Hereditary Privilegentsias 4. Collapse of Systems 5. Decline and Fall of the Intellectual 6. Collapse of Authority 7. Philias 8. Rise of Technology 9. Population Explosion 10. Problem of Bigness 11. Rise of Bureaucracy 12. Decline and Fall of Liberalism 13. Rise of Sociology 14. ‘The Medium is the Message’ Part II: Practical 15. Redundant Religion 16. Pusillanimous Politics 17. Rancid Research 18. Expendable Education 19. Poisoned Professions 20. Bundled Business 21. Curbless Crime 22. Prostrate Press 23. Blathering Broadcasting 24. Anarchic Architecture 25. Arid Art 26. Mangled Music 27. Lacklustre Literature 28. Filmic Flotsam Index
Biography
David Tribe was an Australian secularist, humanist, and author of numerous books, articles and pamphlets. He was born in Sydney, Australia, grew up in Brisbane, and lived in the United Kingdom from the 1950s into the 1970s.
