The Purpose of the State
The state is a depository of man’s greatest plans and ambitions. The State is not the result of top-heavy bureaucratization – this comes later in its development. But rather it is the space to promote individual, future-oriented goals.
This is a summary of Ortega y Gasset’s position – the classical liberal one. John Kenneth Galbraith also says this in his The Good Society: the Human Agenda.
I hardly need say that liberalism is dead – and conservatism is trampling on its corpse.
I worked for a top-heavy bureaucracy once: The Federal Aviation Agency. The last time I was in DC, visiting the Smithsonian, I saw the FAA headquarters – two huge, impressive buildings right across the street. I said to myself “I know what is going on there – nothing!”
But it is in no danger from budget cuts because it is part of the corporatocracy:
Corporatocracy, in social theories that focus on conflicts and opposing interests within society, denotes a system of government that serves the interest of, and may be run by, corporations and involves ties between government and business. Where corporations, conglomerates, and/or government entities with private components, control the direction and governance of a country, including carrying out economic planning (notwithstanding the “free market” label).
The government is not of the people, by the people, and for the people – because the people no longer matter – because they no longer exist.
yay haliburton NOT
I have been in D.C. a few times, rather in past now. My enduring impression of the bureaucrats I saw is that THEY KNOW what is good for you and me and they are particularly qualified to impose their values and perceptions upon the ignorant or misguided citizenry. As for the politicians, they are in show business.
I believe what you are seeing is your own projection. Bureaucrats are not nearly that smart, and they are not usually interested in anything but their own bureaucracy. If they have any ideologies, they are usually not well thought-out, but something picked up at random.
Having been in the bowels of the beast myself, I experienced else: massive conformity and idiocy. No different than what you find in any company.
Perhaps I mislabeled the people I saw as “bureaucrats”. I am referring to political appointees. I was visiting a friend who was around three levels down from the Secretary of HHS.
Runs in…..slaps the person not believing that someone placed into a post being their better…..spit shines and polishes the pedestal….runs back out.
Mr. Pavellas’s clarification was a good one. There are people in the government who know what they are doing – for better or worse.
I worked for the Army R&D organization once, and the guy at the top was accustomed asking for more money in the middle of the fiscal year. That year he was told we hadn’t spent all our money yet. He called us all together and gave us a good bawling out. “Go out and spend more money now!” he commanded. I never so so much money wasted in my life.
It is also true that some agencies are conscientious in their duties – the FDA, for example. The pharmaceutical companies see them as keeping them from making lots of money on questionable drugs – and fight them tooth and nail. The FDA is infringing on their liberties, they claim.