PrintDecember 19, 2006
God Rest Ye Merry Bureaucrats
How does the old carol go? Something like this?God rest ye merry, bureaucrats,At this time of good cheer we ought not to forget bureaucrats. This is the age of the bureaucrat, after all. We build vast temple complexes to honor bureaucracy at the center of every major city-office buildings. The French for office is bureau, but they call their bureaucrats fonctionnaires, functionaries. Bureaucrats are the champions of order and stability. And like the gentlemen addressed in the original carol, it is not clear exactly what they do. But it is impolite to ask.Let nothing you dismay.People who take up the function of bureaucrat, we know, are people who are afraid of everything. Protected from almost every adversity, they are consequently frightened to do anything that might stir things up.Perhaps that is why the complete plans of the Ba'athist insurgency, discovered by low-level US bureaucrats in the ruins of the Iraqi foreign ministry soon after...(Read Full Article)
