Bureaucracy is defined as (definition from Merriam Webster online dictionary):
1) a body of nonelective government officials; an administrative policy-making group
2) government characterized by specialization of functions, adherence to fixed rules, and a hierarchy of authority
3) a system of administration marked by officialism, red tape, and proliferation
So I thought I would post some interesting quotes about bureaucracy as today's post. Interesting to consider that some of them were written many years ago. For example, the first quote from The Screwtape Letters, is from 1942. That tells you that these 'systems' have been around for a while. Some bureaucracy is of course necessary to get things basically organized. But at present, it seems that it exists for itself and itself alone--to make itself bigger, better and irreplaceable. We must need it, for without it we are nothing. And I have real problems with this way of thinking.
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“I live in the Managerial Age, in a world of
"Admin." The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid "dens
of crime" that Dickens loved to paint. It is not done even in
concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result. But it
is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean,
carpeted, warmed and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and
cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voices.
Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy
of a police state or the office of a thoroughly nasty business concern."
― C.S. Lewis, from the Preface of The Screwtape Letters
“Remove the document—and you remove the man.”
― Mikhail Bulgakov
“I sighed. I hated the maze of bureaucracy with a
passion, but I've found the best way to deal with it is to smile and act
stupid. That way, no one gets confused.”
― Kim Harrison, Dead Witch Walking
“Bureaucracy
destroys initiative. There is little that bureaucrats hate more than
innovation, especially innovation that produces better results than the old
routines. Improvements always make those at the top of the heap look inept. Who
enjoys appearing inept?”
― Frank Herbert, Heretics of Dune
“In our time... a
man whose enemies are faceless bureaucrats almost never wins. It is our
equivalent to the anger of the gods in ancient times. But those gods you must
understand were far more imaginative than our tiny bureaucrats. They spoke from
mountaintops not from tiny airless offices. They rode clouds. They were
possessed of passion. They had voices and names. Six thousand years of
civilization have brought us to this.”
― Chaim Potok, Davita's Harp
“Bureaucracies
force us to practice nonsense. And if you rehearse nonsense, you may one day
find yourself the victim of it.”
― Laurence Gonzales, Everyday Survival: Why Smart People
Do Stupid Things
“If you are going to sin, sin against God, not the
bureaucracy. God will forgive you but the bureaucracy won't.”
― Hyman G. Rickover
“The true nature
of bureaucracy may be nowhere more obvious to the observer than in a developing
country, for only there will it still be made manifest by the full complement
of documents, files, veneered desks and cabinets - which convey the strict and
inverse relationship between productivity and paperwork.”
― Alain de Botton, The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work
“Some third person
decides your fate: this is the whole essence of bureaucracy.”
― Kollontai Alexandra, La Oposición Obrera
“In any bureaucracy, the people devoted to the benefit of
the bureaucracy itself always get in control, and those dedicated to the goals
the bureaucracy is supposed to accomplish have less and less influence, and
sometimes are eliminated entirely.[Pournelle's law of Bureaucracy]”
― Jerry Pournelle
