I have a problem with bureaucracy and I don’t mean a little one, it is so bad it can drive me into the deepest depression and to the edge of despair. Confronted with bureaucracy my mind goes into self destruct mode and the physical sensation is one of intense distress, physical, bone deep, aching, hollow, pain and complete mental shut down, stick at it and I become completely mentally and physically dysfunctional.
I strongly suspect it is, in part at least, in my genetic make-up as is my creative desire and drive and I believe it is my creative make-up that has such a low tolerance to bureaucracy which exists as the absolute antithesis of creativity. In terms of colour bureaucracy is grey and creativity is every colour it is possible to make, including grey. bureaucracy is binary and linear, creativity is diverse and non linear.
The ultimate result of bureaucracy is stasis and absolute conformity, the ultimate result of creativity is chaos and absolute non-conformity. Bureaucracy is essentially inward looking and regressive whilst creativity is essentially outward looking and progressive.
Except that bureaucracy isn’t remotely that easy. Who among us has not fallen foul of the nightmare of bureaucracy, the poverty in design and accessibility, the i’s to dot, the t’s to cross, the hoops to jump through and the inhuman, inflexible, uniformity, which, from a human perspective, is actually experienced as chaos.
Why? Humans do not flourish in rigidity and conformity, in fact we wither and die, losing all sense of self and being. The chaos we feel is our humanity in self destruct.
Bureaucracy doesn’t necessarily have to be this way, were it not that those who impose bureaucracy, government (local and national), seldom consider accessibility a particularly relevant issue and only do something about accessibility when enough public pressure is put on them, forcing them to do what they should have done in the first place, invest time and effort to make it accessible and fit for purpose to serve those who are its target, the public. Humans.
The problem with bureaucracy is that as a function of society it becomes ever more inward looking and by a process of official myopia and not a little zealotry it also becomes ever more complex and bewildering. It becomes additive (new bolted on to old) which becomes convoluted, obtuse and obstructive, losing itself in ever more incomprehensible language, because no one stops, or it becomes too complex to stop, to clean it up and simplify it. The complexity of bureaucracy is always someone else’s problem, ultimately governments, which usually restrict themselves to tinkering round the edges, changing bits and adding bits to further confound the public.
In 2012 David Cameron announced his new years resolution was to “kill off the health and safety culture for good”, making a “bonfire of regulations”, of course included in that bonfire were years of hard won protections for ordinary people for whom life in 2012 was about to become very much harder. Messing with bureaucracy means messing with people’s lives, Cameron wasn’t streamlining the existing system or making it more accessible and fair, he was tearing it apart to benefit those most likely to abuse a lack of regulations for profit, which is what the Conservatives ultimately serve.
When bureaucracy becomes the enemy of the people we end up with a ‘Windrush’ a wilfully constructed attack on British citizens for political and ideological purposes, but it is far from restricted to Commonwealth British citizens. Under the excuse of fighting terrorism and extremism, the government has imposed every more draconian measures on people in general with an ever increasing risk of the loss of citizenship through denial of services and the ability to participate in society.
The testing of voter ID in order to vote in the forthcoming local elections is an exercise in perversity. The evidence for this is based on 1 case of proven fraud in 45 million votes cast in 2017. Statistically, that means the imposition of voter ID in being undertaken without a shred of evidence that it is necessary. The reality is that this is an attack on democracy itself, excluding people from voting. A government as authoritarian as the current Conservative government regards democracy as an enemy of state power and social exclusion therefore becomes a weapon of the rogue state.
People cease to be human beings but rather objects of state, not so much ‘habeas corpus’ as, ‘What proof do you have that you are you?’ despite standing there in the flesh.
But, of course, proving who we are isn’t the real problem, the real problem is the rogue state that creates the problem and the more we are drawn into the dark webs of state intrigue, the more we exist on state sufferance, the less secure life becomes, the more we lose our freedom to live without state interference. As David Cameron warned, “For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens ‘as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone’.”
Well, we are here, and the question is how many more of us will go to the wall before the supine masses wake up? That has been the problem since 2010 (though it in no way began there) and remains the most significant problem facing Britain today. Will the majority of UK citizens ever throw off their Stockholm Syndrome and stop being prisoners of the state and stop collaborating with our oppressors?
The matter of voter ID could quickly be resolved if people, in numbers, refused to comply, quite literally shutting down the voting system in their area by voting with their feet and refusing to comply with an unwanted and unnecessary imposition and standing their ground. What could the police or state do? Every person would agree to leave the voting station when they have been allowed to vote as has happened in every local and national vote to this day, but not under the unreasonable demand for proof of identity.
Given the paucity of police under Conservative misrule, what could they do, bring in the army and the tanks? Oh, not enough tanks to do that either, what a shame.
Keith Ordinary Guy
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/david-cameron-i-will-kill-off-safety-culture-6285238.html
https://www.jordans.co.uk/news/-/asset_publisher/3rFV3dkGna7g/content/david-cameron-to-back-bonfire-of-regulations-/10192
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/election-fraud-voter-photo-id-polling-station-need-to-vote-electoral-commission-reform-a8238496.html
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/britain-is-too-tolerant-and-should-interfere-more-in-peoples-lives-says-david-cameron-10246517.html
