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   mcc (mcc@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 23-Jan-2024 23:12:42 JST mcc

   The essence of bureaucracy is rigid, inflexible rules for one side of the equation and just making it up as you go along for the other

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 23-Jan-2024 23:12:41 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     @mcc
     Agreed, and I think people miss how much the former necessitates the latter. As we programmers know, rigid rules and unambiguous instructions can have surprising and undesirable consequences. Humans are the flexible part of complex systems, and if one with rigid rules is going to work, it •will• evolve points of capricious flexibility to compensate (or it will collapse).

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 23-Jan-2024 23:29:30 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • FeralRobots

     @FeralRobots @mcc
     Oh, yes, agreed and I was thinking of the Wilhoit when I read the OP. I don’t mean to be charitable. I only mean that this phenomenon emerges organically, so don’t be fooled if somebody with that kind of Wilhoitian intent isn’t explicitly creating the points of privileged flexibility. Corruption in authoritarian societies is a great example: to enrich officials, just make rigid and unworkable rules, and the bribery will take care of itself.

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     FeralRobots (feralrobots@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 23-Jan-2024 23:29:31 JST FeralRobots

     in reply to

     • Paul Cantrell

     @inthehands
     This is fair & it's a really important charitable perspective.

     That having been said, this echoes Wilhoit's Law. ('Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition …There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.') It also has powerful resonance w/Calvinist ideas about predestination & elect status. So while it's a necessary truth, it's also a HIGHLY WEAPONIZED truth.
     @mcc