Second, in meritocracy, unless you're at the very top, it's hard to avoid feeling like a failure, since you'll always end up next to people whose greater success clearly reminds you of your inferior merit.
Not only did the Medieval peasant have good reason to believe that Kings aren't really that different from him as people, but rather just different in their proper place in society. Kings had an easier time looking at a poor peasant and saying to themselves that there but for the grace of God go they.
In a meritocracy it is easier to disdain and dehumanize those who fail.
Do you mean to suggest that a significant percentage of Medieval peasants in fact considered Kings to not be all that different from themselves as people, and that a significant percentage of Medieval Kings actually said that there but for the grace of God go they with respect to a poor peasant?
Or merely that it was in some sense easier for them to do so, even if that wasn't actually demonstrated by their actions?
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post, even in Discussion, it goes here.