The Bleakness of a Bureaucratic Lifestyle

This article from The American Thinker, published in 2007, explains the failures of a system entrenched with bureaucracies, at almost every level of organization, that are doomed to fail. The author writes three examples, each with starkly different circumstances, where bureaucratic thinking led to disastrous results. The first was the failure of the British Navy in the Persian Gulf, the second was the tragic school shooting at Virginia tech, and the third is the War on Terror.

In the first event, priceless time was spent checking and rechecking with officers and superiors to determine what should be done, resulting in a "humiliation by a militia of speedboats." He tells an anecdote of legendary Horatio Nelson, who decided to ignore an order he thought must be a mistake, and went on to win a crucial naval victory. The author claims this blatant disregard of standard procedure was the obvious correct choice. At Virginia Tech, despite numerous incidents that seem like clear red-flag-raising warnings, nobody could connect the dots and declare Cho Seung-hui a threat. And in the War on Terror, the author says the problems of bureaucracy are "everywhere."

Though it seems hasty to claim that following orders in the military equates to dumbly obeying an inefficient bureaucracy, he says, "It used to be understood that there where times when you would throw out the rule book." Easier said then done, obviously, but that's entirely his point. He sees the system overrun with bureaucratic incompetence, where we believe, in government at least, that it's "The only way of doing things." He mentions the typical argument that one makes about bureaucracies: that they are self perpetuating, and that they don't work to the ends for which they were created. He also mentions a different problem: bureaucracies rely on rational rule-following for people whom, he says, are often unpredictable or irrational. And in some situations, trying to follow a by-the-book paint-by-numbers solution is the most impractical thing to do.

What is his solution? It's bleak, really, because as he points out: any chances at reform of the bureaucracy must make it through a bureaucratic system. No, he says, the only thing that can save us is individual willpower and determination, an inherent drive to be self-sufficient. Hard to do when you have to fly home this Thanksgiving break and enjoy some quality time with the TSA agents.