Bureaucracy the Enemy of Freedom and Common Sense

by Jack Lee

Who out here has not been the victim of some pencil pushing bureaucrat or some ill conceived, rule, law or regulation?   I believe the answer is, we all have!  And when it happened of course we felt victimized and angry, but did anything get fixed or were we forced to capitulate?  Sadly, bureaucracy is often times too big for one person to fight, no matter how just the cause.   

According to the German Historian, Max Weber, bureaucracy “is a system of administration characterized by expertness, impartiality and the absence of humanity.” Webber argued that the bureaucratization of the modern world has led to a reliance on rules that take away personal judgment, .i.e. common sense decision making.

In his vision of bureaucracy, people were little more than a small cog on a small wheel within a great machine. Their whole existence was fixated on becoming a bigger cog. And thus was born the next generation of a bureaucrat personality, content to generate countless reams of worthless reports that nobody ever reads for no apparent purpose. This is our government today, its endemic in our legislature, our military and in every program we’ve ever created.

Weber lived in the 1800’s but his words were prophetic as evidenced by today’s [idiocracy] aka stupid people in high places, kept there by the giant bureaucracy.

Incidents of bureaucratic injustices are growing as fast as the over-reaching, over-regulating and over-controlling bureaucracy itself!   Ironically, voters keep pushing for more socialism and socialism desperately needs bureaucracy.  But, our nation was founded on capitalism and capitalism works better when bureaucracy is held in check.   We’re being bogged down at every level of government and private enterprise over minutia, lawyers and worthless paper pushing made easier by computers.   We’re allowing the undermining our past progress, our efficiency, our innovation, our opportunities and perhaps worst of all…our freedom and all the usual personal accountability that goes with it.  We’re deferring too much to the big Nanny State and the safety of being a rule follower.

Bureaucracy is a threat to our humanity. It depersonalizing. Yet, bureaucracy seems to be thriving in our public and private organizations because of those anal-retentive types that climb to power because they are willing to invest their lives in “going by the book” because they were born without a soul and one ounce of imagination. As a result bureaucracy is growing exponentially.    It’s effecting every facet of our daily lives!   You should be alarmed about this encroachment on your turf while we still have the opportunity to make a course correction.

Germany Eichmann Files

We live in a complex society and we need rules; apparently a lot of rules.   But, it’s rare that a rule escapes the law of unintended consequences and this can have a negative consequence.   Yet, by strict adherence to rules, even stupid rules, there is personal protection that comes from the avoiding ownership of one’s decision because, “We were just following the rules….oh, and that leads to “I was just following orders!” This was a common defense in Nazi war crimes trials.  Adolph Eichmann, who ran the Nazi death camps said, “Don’t blame me, I was just following orders.”  His orders allowed his conscience to be placed on hold.

It’s so true, following the rules can offer temporary shelter from personal accountability.  But, so far history says those kind of people eventually are brought to justice.

Being a good little rule follower is both a good thing and bad thing, because it’s a short step from being the former to being an oppressive, obsessive, anal retentive rule follower!    And no doubt we’ve all run into this types at some point in our lives and they likely made a lasting bad impression.   In the latter case the bureaucrat  is way too willing to abdicate his/her personal judgment in favor of the rule, as if it were issued by a divine authority devoid of error.

Unfortunately, today’s system rewards the anal people more than a person willing to take a little risk in order to get the job done.   The anal types always play it safe and because they have no “Aw shi–) in the personal file, they get promoted to ever more powerful places, it’s the way the rules are structured. This has had a deleterious impact on those courageous individuals who are willing to buck the system because they know it’s the right thing to do.  We can see bureaucracy manifested in ways that would seem absurd to a person living in the 1800’s, but here we are in 2015 and we accept these things as normal.  Safety labels come to mind now:   ”Lacquer Thinner – do not drink.” “This figurine contains lead – do not eat.” (Side thought – How many warning labels exist today that never existed in 1950? My guess is nearly all of them.)

Well, if people are stupid enough to drink paint thinner or eat figurines with lead, aren’t they too far gone for a warning label? 

Given the trajectory we’re on with bureaucracy, expect more and more rules that will take will bleed you white, they will rob you of your incentive, common sense and it will be replaced by regulations, laws and legalisms all aimed at avoiding any notion of personal responsibility, while acquiescing ones servitude to the great machine; A machine that cares nothing about our humanity, our sense of compassion or fairness.

Bureaucracy is already regulating how you parent your children…in several States you are a criminal if you let your 8 year old walk a block to the park without being accompanied by a person older than 13. Bureaucracy limits your power over your personal decisions and it’s growing like a cancer. If you think its bad now, give it another 50 years.

Oh, and if you still have any doubts where this is headed, I invite you to peruse the 78,000 pages of the IRS manual.

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11 Responses to Bureaucracy the Enemy of Freedom and Common Sense

  1. Pie Guevara says:

    Bowing to bureaucracies and progressives not much different as drinking paint thinner.

    Cheers!

  2. Peggy says:

    It’s a guarantee anyone who has been adult for at least a year will tangle with at least one bureaucracy laden dept. probably a state or the federal gov’t.

    I got caught up in two separate cases with DMV, which I’m happy to report I won both but it was hell dealing with front-line people who kept telling me they didn’t have supervisors.

    Have to share a personal story of a girlfriend who had four young kids. Her new car kept having to go back to the dealership for a problem the service dept. assured her was fixed to repeatedly reappear.

    On her final trip she took all four kids a picnic basket, blanket, toys/balls, and diapers. The sales dept. tried to stop her from setting everything up on the showroom floor, but she refused to budge.

    Her car was fixed in record time and fixed right, because she informed them every time she had to bring the car back she would set up her “picnic” for her kids again if she did for all potential buyers to see.

    In my two cases I refused to accept what the front-line employee was telling me and since I couldn’t get through them I found a way around them. Took some time and lots of perseverance, but in both cases I got an apology from the supervisors.

  3. bob says:

    Speaking of bureaucracy there is going to be a big push here locally to raise our taxes.

    CARD wants a tax increase to build a swimming pool center which will cost around $18 million at a time when they can’t even maintain the parks and infrastructure they already have.

    There is a group that wants a tax increase for police. This after the police and sheriffs were awarded big raises. (The police got 10% raises, the teachers 9% raises and an increase in their benefits. The city is going to hire 6 more officers and 10 more bureaucrats.)

    I know of no one in the private sector getting these kind of raises. At a time when the city faces perilous unfunded pension and other liabilities and when the city’s infrastructure is falling apart this is insane. The city can’t afford it.

    So what’s the answer? More and higher taxes if you listen to Lando, CARD and others.

    Jack, will you unequivocally oppose all local tax increases? Taxes are already insanely high in this disfunctional state. I trust you will not support more insanity and are not going to go RINO on us. What about you Miss Tina and whoever else runs Postscripts?

  4. bob says:

    Bureaucracy empowers the great Nanny State just as fast as it limits your power over your personal decisions.

    And let’s not forget that George Bush signed legislation that effectively outlawed the incandescent light bulb so for years we’ve had to use those cr@ppy and toxic fluorescent bulbs. It shows that while DemoNcrats are awful, Republicans can be bad, too.

  5. bob says:

    And getting back to raises and benefits for all these gummit people, let me tell you how it is for most folks in the private sector.

    One, the vast majority of folks get no pension whatsoever, let alone a pension when you’re 50 that represents 90% of your highest year’s salary.

    Two, as far as raises go, if you can manage to get a raise that keeps you up with the inflation rate, that is the phoney gummit numbers, you are lucky. And forget about getting raises that keep up with the real inflation numbers, like those John Williams calculates at shadowstats.com.

    The real middle class (non-gooberment) in this country has been decimated while those in gooberment make out like bandits at everyone else’s expense.

    And if you don’t believe that you ought to read this book:

    Plunder: How Public Employee Unions are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation

    http://www.amazon.com/Plunder-Employee-Treasuries-Controlling-Bankrupting/dp/0984275207

  6. bob says:

    “The real middle class (non-gooberment) in this country has been decimated while those in gooberment make out like bandits at everyone else’s expense.”

    So if these gooberment thieves at the federal, state, county or city levels want tax increase they can SHOVE IT!

    Do you people remember what the TEA in Tea Party stands for? It should have been TTMA!

  7. Peggy says:

    The ultimate example of out of control government bureaucracy.

    Fed Gov’t Hired 24/7 Security Team to Bring Down Outlaw Farmer for Raisin’ a ‘Dangerous’ Product:

    http://www.ijreview.com/2015/04/303126-daily-show-exposes-real-life-wild-west-outlaw-taking-federal-government/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=organic&utm_content=conservativedaily&utm_campaign=Politics

    • Post Scripts says:

      Peggy, this is another example of idiocracy…”In this particular case, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has set up a program that each year confiscates a certain percentage of all raisins grown in this country … in order to try to stabilize the market, keep down production and therefore drive up prices.” It is amazing to see how far we have drifted away from the free enterprise system.

  8. Pie Guevara says:

    Off Topic —

    1. Deny: Salient questions are dodged, and evidence goes missing. The stone wall is built.

    2. Deflect: Blame is shifted, usually to Republicans and the media.

    3. Demean: People who question or criticize the Clintons get tarred as right-wing extremists, hacks, nuts, or sluts.

    Sound like anyone who visits these pages?

    The Questions Hillary Clinton Doesn’t Want Answered About the Clinton Foundation
    http://www.nationaljournal.com/2016-elections/hillary-clinton-clinton-foundation-ron-fournier-20150422

  9. Peggy says:

    Jack, Fox covered this case tonight. It went before the Supreme Court today. Here’s what a couple of the judges said. This little farmer just may win against the bureaucracy giant.

    Can government squeeze raisin growers? Justices have doubts:

    “WASHINGTON — A post-World War II-era program that forces raisin producers to give part of their annual crop to the government could soon be a relic of history.Several Supreme Court justices expressed doubts Wednesday that federal officials can legally take raisins away from farmers without full payment even if the goal is to help boost overall market prices.Two California farmers claim the program is prohibited by the Constitution, which forbids the taking of private property without “just compensation.”During a one-hour argument, most of the justices seemed to agree. Justice Antonin Scalia compared it to old-style Soviet central planning, while Justice Elena Kagan called it a “weird historical anomaly.”Chief Justice John Roberts noted that most other farm regulatory programs try to limit how much of a crop farmers can grow, as opposed to taking away produce already harvested.”This is different because you come up with the truck and you get the shovels and you take their raisins, probably in the dark of night,” Roberts said to laughter.”

    Continued..
    http://www.fox23.com/ap/ap/top-news/can-government-squeeze-raisin-growers-justices-hav/nkzn6/#sthash.YLfh9ZKi.dpuf

  10. Peggy says:

    Pie, conservatives in Wisconsin aren’t safe from being targeted by democrats either.

    Wisconsin’s Shame: ‘I Thought It Was a Home Invasion’:

    http://www.nationalreview.com/article/417155/wisconsins-shame-i-thought-it-was-home-invasion-david-french

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