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Of the Bureaucrats, by the Bureaucrats, for the Bureaucrats
National Review ^ | 06/20/2014 | Jonah Goldberg

Posted on 06/25/2014 10:12:27 AM PDT by Rusty0604

For understandable reasons, the IRS scandal has largely focused on the political question of whether the White House deliberately targeted its opponents. To date there’s no evidence that it did. That’s good for the president, but it may not be good for the country, because if the administration didn’t target opponents, that would mean the IRS has become corrupt all on its own.

In 1939, Bruno Rizzi, a largely forgotten Communist intellectual, wrote a hugely controversial book, The Bureaucratization of the World. Rizzi argued that the Soviet Union wasn’t Communist. Rather, it represented a new kind of system, what Rizzi called “bureaucratic collectivism.” What the Soviets had done was get rid of the capitalist and aristocratic ruling classes and replace them with a new, equally self-interested ruling class: bureaucrats.

Trotsky’s response, in turn, inspired James Burnham, who used many of Rizzi’s ideas in his own 1941 book The Managerial Revolution, in which Burnham argued that something similar was happening in the West. A new class of bureaucrats, educators, technicians, regulators, social workers, and corporate directors who worked in tandem with government were reengineering society for their own benefit. The Managerial Revolution was a major influence on George Orwell’s 1984.

The evidence is everywhere. Every day it seems there’s another story about teachers’ unions using their stranglehold on public schools to reward themselves at the expense of children. The Veterans Affairs scandal can be boiled down to the fact that VA employees are the agency’s most important constituency.

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...


TOPICS: Government
KEYWORDS: bureaucrats; jonahgoldberg
After working with a gov't employees union for years, I find a lot of truth in this article.
1 posted on 06/25/2014 10:12:27 AM PDT by Rusty0604
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To: Rusty0604

I call it the Burearchy.
(Rule by bureau.)


2 posted on 06/25/2014 10:14:48 AM PDT by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: Rusty0604
Kurdish forces took control of the divided city of Kirkuk as the Iraqi Army fled.

Why is it not the "Holy" city of Kirkuk?

3 posted on 06/25/2014 10:27:58 AM PDT by gr8eman (A good rant should have the word "crap" in it at least 4 times!)
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To: gr8eman

Oops...wrong thread! Does that hurt my freep cred?


4 posted on 06/25/2014 10:28:35 AM PDT by gr8eman (A good rant should have the word "crap" in it at least 4 times!)
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To: gr8eman

Not at all


5 posted on 06/25/2014 10:29:44 AM PDT by Rusty0604
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To: Rusty0604

“......if the administration didn’t target opponents, that would mean the IRS has become corrupt all on its own.”.....

These gubmint departments do NOTHING on their own or without direction from the White House. They were given their marching orders and followed those orders. When things got a bit too warm, the White House threw them under the bus just like all other scandals.


6 posted on 06/25/2014 10:48:12 AM PDT by DaveA37
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To: Rusty0604

I find it disturbing that the standard for alarm seems to be whether this nation begins to resemble the Soviet Union in the 1930’s or Oceania in 1984. As Americans, the standard for alarm and an appropriate response should be much lower.

In much the same way as running water can carve out chasms, a daily, slow paced, never ending erosion of our freedoms will eventually get us to a place too terrible to think about.


7 posted on 06/25/2014 10:49:55 AM PDT by L,TOWM (No one in the US is free of the spirit of entitlement)
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To: Rusty0604

Historically, the VA did not give out all these bonuses. Now, they are giving out millions and millions of dollars every year in bonuses. Who authorized all this? The VA was mired in bureaucratic red tape anyway well before they started doing this. Arranging one’s paperwork (now of course all on computer) so as to meet certain criteria and therefore be eligible for these bonuses, seems to be what the majority of people who now work for the VA are doing with their time. Not taking care of patients. These people sit at their computers all day long, filling out computerized forms that make it appear that their department is meeting certain standards. Then, the government says “Well done! You are good and faithful bureaucrats! You deserve a bonus!” The VA is now a shakedown racket for government bureaucrats to earn bonuses. It is no longer about taking care of the veterans.


8 posted on 06/25/2014 10:52:50 AM PDT by Rosie405
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To: gr8eman
Kurdish forces took control of the divided city of Kirkuk as the Iraqi Army fled.

Why is it not the "Holy" city of Kirkuk?

THIS thread is about the Holy City of Washington, not Kirkuk!

Get your compass out and re-orient your prayer rug!

/sarc

:-)

9 posted on 06/25/2014 11:13:18 AM PDT by BwanaNdege ( "For those who have fought for it, Life bears a savor the protected will never know")
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To: Rusty0604

We are governed by a Democrat Party made up of vengeful, thieving eight year olds.


10 posted on 06/25/2014 11:14:49 AM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: blueunicorn6
We are governed by a Democrat Party made up of vengeful, thieving eight year olds.

And the alternative (as shown yesterday in Mississippi) is a party made up of vengeful, thieving eighty year olds.

11 posted on 06/25/2014 11:58:26 AM PDT by KarlInOhio (The IRS: either criminally irresponsible in backup procedures or criminally responsible of coverup.)
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To: BwanaNdege

LOL!
I think it was Galbraith who wrote a book (New Industrial State?) that pointed out the same thing happened in Corporate America — the companies are run for the benefit of the employees, not the shareholders. Of course, there are more opportunities to remedy that situation in the private sector than in the public sector.....


12 posted on 06/25/2014 12:33:29 PM PDT by expat2
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To: KarlInOhio

The VA has a Bad Boys List that you go on if you complain. They don’t treat those bad boys. That’s how vengeful, thieving 8 year olds act.


13 posted on 06/25/2014 1:01:22 PM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: OneWingedShark

Not only that, America’s Bureaucracies have become the primary place of employment for Democrats. I bet you that over 90% of workers in these Bureaucracies are democrat underlings and ALL the managerial staff are democrats... the question is, how to fix this problem?

My Solution:
1. Drastically reduce funding for all bureaucracies.
2. De-Unionize all bureaucracies.
3. De-Institutionalize bureaucracies by use of a type of Affirmative Action for hiring which says that no more than a certain percentage of employees can come from a certain political persuasion, regardless of race, religion or creed.
4. De-Link all bureaucracies from politics and political pressure by making them totally open to the public via an information clearing house. All communications within and between bureaucracies are to be made public, unless determined to be of national security interests. How, simple; each bureaucracy shall include in its webpage a tab for realtime and archived communications. No more filing for freedom of information from a federal court.


14 posted on 06/26/2014 5:15:01 AM PDT by dps.inspect (rage against the Obama machine...)
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To: dps.inspect
My solution, disband all federal agencies except those who are (a) directly authorized by the Constitution, or (b) fulfill a role/responsibility directly stated in the Constitution; that would mean our federal agencies would be the following:
  1. Army
  2. Navy (this includes Marines, a subdepartment thereof)
  3. Post Office
  4. DOT (interstate commerce)
  5. Secret Service (Counterfeiting; guard/security duties should be dropped)
  6. IRS (Tax collection)
  7. Border Patrol (immigration)
  8. Coast Guard (customs enforcement)
I think I got them all there… but imagine that being the whole-and-complete list of federal agencies.
15 posted on 06/26/2014 10:08:38 AM PDT by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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