“The bureaucracy takes itself to be the ultimate purpose of the state.” Karl Marx
“The ten most dangerous words in the English language are “Hi, I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.” Ronald Reagan
How many of you know just how much of your life is determined by multitudes of nameless, faceless bureaucrats? You might think that the politicians in Washington D.C. have the ultimate authority when it comes to day to day decisions about how the government runs and how it treats its subjects, but if you have any belief in that illusion, you are sadly mistaken. The real power of the government is with the petty bureaucrat, the one you might see from time to time. Think the DMV clerk, the IRS auditor, the tax collector – any one of these individuals has the power, backed by government, to ruin your life at the point of a gun if they so decide.
“It is the invariable habit of bureaucracies, at all times and everywhere, to assume…that every citizen is a criminal. Their one apparent purpose, pursued with a relentless and furious diligence, is to convert the assumption into a fact. They hunt endlessly for proofs, and, when proofs are lacking, for mere suspicions. The moment they become aware of a definite citizen, John Doe, seeking what is his right under the law, they begin searching feverishly for an excuse for withholding it from him.” H. L. Mencken
Anyone who has taken an airline flight lately knows exactly what H. L. Mencken’s quote means. You are treated as a suspect from the moment you enter the airport until you get on your plane. And it’s not just airports – has anyone tried to renew their car tags or driver’s license lately? How many different layers of proof is one citizen expected to have anymore? It’s quickly degenerating into the old Soviet question, “Papers, please.” Now with the Real ID Act, it’s going to be even harder to prove who you are without the microchip that’s embedded in most forms of ID today. Mark of the beast, anyone?
“A bureaucrat is the most despicable of men, though he is needed as vultures are needed, but one hardly admires vultures whom bureaucrats so strangely resemble. I have yet to meet a bureaucrat who was not petty, dull, almost witless, crafty or stupid, an oppressor or a thief, a holder of little authority in which he delights, as a boy delights in possessing a vicious dog. Who can trust such creatures?” Marcus Tullius Cicero
That quote comes from his writings in early A.D. Rome (click the link to see when – for the purposes of this post, it doesn’t matter). But even though he wrote that quote very early in western civilization’s history, Cicero identified the central problem with bureaucrats and bureaucracies. The people who are attracted to bureaucratic or government jobs know that they are unsuited for any social success or productive work and it infuriates them, so they want payback. What better way to get payback than to fuck with people who they know are their betters? They relish their jobs because every time they can make someone wait, audit their tax returns, place a lien on their property or in extreme cases cause someone to die, they feel that their revenge is taken.
“Hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat scorned.” Milton Friedman
No truer statement was ever uttered and if you don’t believe me on this, just fuck with one of these dickheads. They will ensure that, to all extent of their government bestowed powers, they will do anything they can to make your life as hellish as possible and make you pay even more of your hard earned money than you do presently. Fuck with them enough, or just be in the wrong situation at the wrong time and they’ll ruin your life…or get you killed.
“The threat of people acting in their own enlightened and rational self-interest strikes bureaucrats, politicians and social workers as ominous and dangerous.” W. G. Hill
Having no enlightenment, no rationality and only self interest, bureaucrats see us individuals who want to live our lives without their interference as alien, almost as if a green extraterrestrial had walked into their office. They have no reference for what it is like to live as a person, much less a free individual with hopes and dreams and the means to attain them. And so, we are dangerous. We don’t behave “by the book.” And we have to be controlled. It’s all for our own best interests, isn’t it? Why should anyone be allowed to follow their individual talents and drive for the life they wish to live? That might make someone else feel inferior, just like they do. So we must be at the least controlled, and at the extreme destroyed.
“The purpose of bureaucracy is to demolish face-to-face social groups, to break instinctive and emotional social ties and obligations, and to subordinate people to the power of the state. It is cruel, it is wasteful, and it is unjust.” Christopher Chantrill
So now we get to the true purpose of the bureaucracy that surrounds us today. The bureaucracy is impersonal, attracting to its ranks people who have no interpersonal relationships, no social aptitude and inferior abilities. It is intended to splinter free associations among free individuals. It promotes subservience to the state through obstinance, humiliation, propaganda, obfuscation, outright lies and examples of individuals exposed for the most minor of infractions in its medias. It relies on destroying reputations, besmirching integrity, turning social networks away from individuals under its scrutiny, and separating families. It is, in my opinion, the most destructive force that we are exposed to on a daily basis. I’ll take my chances with the Taliban before I will with any bureaucracy I’m liable to be exposed to in my daily life. At least with the Taliban, I know where I stand.
“Should we believe self-serving, ever-growing drug enforcement/drug treatment bureaucrats, whose pay and advancement depends on finding more and more people to arrest and “treat”? More Americans die in just one day in prisons, penitentiaries, jails and stockades than have ever died from marijuana throughout history. Who are they protecting? From what?” Dr. Fred Oerther
“Whose pay and advancement depends on finding more and more people to arrest and ‘treat’?” That one statement explains the entire reason for the War on Drugs. And make no mistake, it is a war. But the name is misleading, it’s not about drugs at all, because if they ever succeeded, there would be millions of tax parasites out of work. It is a war to ensure that the parasites continue to get fed and expand. Nothing more, nothing less. How is that working out for Mexico where the government there has just about lost control of their country because of U.S. interventionism? And why, since the U.S. military is supposedly in control in Afghanistan, is their opium crop still being grown and exported? No, it’s not about keeping people from consuming drugs; it’s about ensuring that people continue to consume drugs. Without that demand, the taxpayer trough would soon empty. Can’t have that now, can we?
“[I]f we won’t choose to pay the price of liberty, then by default we shall suffer the cost of servitude — whether it be the iron chains of a tyrannical oligarchy or the regulatory chains of unelected, faceless bureaucrats. When we witness our neighbors abused by tyrants, will we skulk away and hope we’re not next? Or will we stand by them and challenge — as freedom-loving Americans — the tyranny of lawless leaders.” Phil Trieb
Anyone reading the quote above already knows the answer. Everyone hopes they’re not next, so they hang their heads and refuse to get involved, even when they know their neighbor is innocent. And there’s a reason why. You WILL be the next target, because the bureaucracy never forgets and definitely never forgives. The iron chains are unnecessary in the society we live in today. Regulatory chains serve the same purpose just as well.
“The welfare state that is built upon this conception seems to prove precisely away from the conservative conception of authoritative and personal government, towards a labyrinthine privilege sodden structure of anonymous power, structuring a citizenship that is increasingly reluctant to answer for itself, increasingly parasitic on the dispensations of a bureaucracy towards which it can feel no gratitude.” Roger Scruton
This is the inevitable end of the path that started over a century ago. Look around you. How many of your friends, co-workers or families have their eyes open to what is obviously happening around them? I bet you can count them on one hand. They probably know deep down inside how much has been taken away from them, but for most people it’s easier to stay oblivious and collect their miniscule paycheck or if they’re like one third or more of the population, their government benefits. Watch some TV, drink some beer, play a video game, it’s all good as long as the checks keep coming in.
“Bureaucracy is that dreadful state of when more emphasis is placed on the process than the actual resolution of a problem.” William Powell
The problem is that the bureaucracy is entrenched. From Ask.com:
“How many government employees are there in the US?
21,292,000.
There are a total of 21,292,000 government employees in the United States as of February 2010. This is according to the Employment Situation Summary published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics on March 5, 2010. This number shows an 0.6% increase in the number of US government employees compared to February 2009.”
That was in February 2010. I would dare say that with government expansion at the rates they are today, the number now is way over 22,000,000. These are people who are unelected. The huge majority of them are career bureaucrats, with huge incentives to keep their annual pay raises and future pensions. Think they give a damn about you? Think again. These are the people who still have their jobs after each election. Elected officials are a miniscule portion of the government and as such have very little impact on the overall policies that the bureaucracy relies on to preserve its power. Any elected official who tries to initiate reforms is quickly taken care of. Just look at the truth about John F. Kennedy’s assassination and you will see that the bureaucracy has become a monolithic threat to all Americans, no matter how high the elected office.
So I know you are all asking, “What can be done?” My answer is ‘nothing,’ because it would be pure futility to try. The beauty of it is we don’t have to do anything. The bureaucracy has set itself up for the most spectacular fall of any organized group of people since the Soviet Union, if not the Roman Empire. It’s going to be fast, and it’s not going to be pretty. As a matter of fact, just by staying out of their clutches, you can exacerbate their downfall.
That’s one day I can’t wait to arrive.
