Encounters with bureaucRats, episode 2
The bureaucRatic mind-- if it exists at all-- is a small, rigid thing. It has no capacity to deal with things it doesn't already understand.
My first car was an electric car-- yes, I have always been an environmentalist. When I went to the DMV office to register the car, they had their standard questions about the vehicle. But the answers weren't standard.
The DMV-bot asked the make and model. She'd never heard of either the make or model, but she dutifully typed that into the form. Then came the really confusing (to her) parts.
She asked how many cylinders the car had. Well, it was electric, so it didn't have any cylinders. That's not how electric motors work. I said "Zero". The woman said she couldn't put that- it had to be 4, 6, or 8 cylinders. I told her again it doesn't have cylinders. She just looked skeptical and moved on.
Next question: What fuel, gasoline or diesel? I said-- for the third or fourth time at this point-- that it was electric. It didn't use gas or diesel; it had no fuel tank. Only batteries and a charger. I plug it into an extension cord. Its fuel is electricity. That's all.
I got blank stares from her. She typed, collected money, and when she handed me the registration I discovered I had probably the world's only 4 cylinder electric car that ran on gas. I just laughed and showed it to people to illustrate the stupidity of those people.
And people wonder why I consider the bureaucRatic mind to most likely be a myth.
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Few government organizations embody the banality of evil better than the DMV. It's where people go to die. Those that work there have been thoroughly desensitized to any sort of human empathy; I'm convinced if they watched an axe murder in front of their window, they'd indignantly chide the killer for not waiting for his number to be called.
Government bureaucracy combines the worst of both government and bureaucracy into a soul-crushing experience.
And yet some people want these same goons to control (and ration) healthcare.
Well of course. Surely they wouldn't mismanage a national healthcare system. After all, the DMV is just easy stuff; health services are really important. Besides, we all know that you shouldn't judge a group's future performance on its past performance! That's just bigoted and small-minded! Have a heart! They'll definitely totally get it right this time.
"TRUMP IS SATAN! But the government in which Trump gained power still needs authority over things essential to my existence!"
I find it highly amusing that in an era of pro-environmentalism, the car-licensing system lacks the appropriate check-boxes for an electric car.
Well, that was back in 1980. I'm sure the bureaucratic theft machine has fixed that oversight since then.
Hmm, 38 years.... they might have gotten around to it by now!
Nothing is more of an impediment to real progress than a bureaucrat who imposes himself between the innovator and the market. Thinking outside the box must be physically painful for such troglodytes.
EDIT I could write a whole post about this. I can see it now. "Innovation is about thinking outside the box. Government is about ticking boxes on a pre-printed form with no room for innovation and change."
Yeah, I've blogged before that if you want innovation you've got to turn away from The State.