释义 |
mediocracy, n.|miːdɪˈɒkrəsɪ| [Blend of mediocre a. and n. and -ocracy.] Government by the mediocre; a system within which mediocrity is rewarded.
1909Daily Chron. 12 July 4/4 We are all at hear agreed upon one political creed. This is that the only really adequate form of government is a ‘mediocracy’... We are happy in our firm belief that..the greatness of the British Empire rests..upon the mediocrity of the middle-classes. 1937D. Jerrold Georgian Adventure iv. 124 A professional officer corps..reinforcing itself from a mediocracy of successful careerists and yes-men. 1972H. J. Eysenck Psychol. is about People iv. 198 The conscious cultivation of a mediocracy, in which the bright, the original, the innovators, the geniuses are held back in order to spare the mediocre the spectacle of outstanding success is to me an abomination. 1984A. Hearnden Red Robert xiv. 254 He had a sharp eye for the point at which a meritocracy becomes a mediocracy. 1990I. MacDonald New Shostakovich (1991) vii. 233 He was simply furious with the Soviet mediocracy and the morally rotten art it brandished as exemplary. So ˈmediocrat n.
1909Daily Chron. 12 July 4/4 Our style and title is ‘The Mediocrats’, and our aim may be expressed in a sentence as the promotion, by every means within our members' power, of the great principle of mediocrity. 1928N. Bartley (title) The mediocrat. 1995Daily Tel. 16 Jan. 21/6 The cult of mediocrity or ‘classlessness’ has spread to every aspect of public administration and most areas of industry and commerce. The only thing these mediocrats are good at is keeping better candidates out. |