Editor,
Do you feel a growing unease about important positions going unfulfilled in many areas of society? Their absence is beginning to affect our lives. It’s true that COVID, breakdowns, staffing and supply chains have rendered our systems unreliable. The fact is that crucial systems are shifting.
Modern society operates through institutions run by bureaucracies that carry out tasks necessary to function effectively. They require enough resources to build and support necessary staff with livable wages. Like everything, bureaucracies age and begin to fail. I am a historian and historically speaking, a sure indicator of a society’s impending demise is the breakdown of its bureaucracies.
The pandemic drove people out of the workforce and opened up the horizon so they could see the treadmill they were on, its costs to their health, family life, and quality of life, all in service of the wealthy. Society’s billionaire greed is felt first by essential workers and altruistic professions. Under the illusion of creating prosperity, corporate capitalism robs mainstream workers. Money hoarding by the uber-wealthy has slowly allowed them to consolidate power, avoid taxation and starve essential bureaucracies. We are losing laborers and field workers, but teachers, health care workers, police, and others committed to the public good. These are among the professions that keep bureaucracies alive and able to support the greatest good for the greatest number.
The goal of ruling elites is power and control over society and its resources. This is done in many ways, none more insidious than the privatization of propaganda through scripted news, conspiracy theories and carefully crafted messaging delivered via networks and ‘citizen news’ channels (social media, etc.) which purposefully confuse democratic socialism with dictatorships. The net effect is to push the unaware, inexperienced, apathetic and uninformed to vote against their own interests and install servants of greed to high office where bureaucratic decisions are made. They disempower the watchdog agencies so they can continue undetected and relieve themselves of accountability. Societies rely on accountability to sustain the common good. When that breaks down, civilization follows.
Historically, every time an era reaches its end it is exploited by the greedy until it implodes. We do not have to guess our trajectory; we simply need to look to history. Reform and revolution always change the balance. We simply must recognize that the goal of the Republican Party, extreme or moderate, is, and (since Reagan) has been, to support a structure where the rich can continue to game the system and feed their greed.
The critical tasks in front of us are to accept the reality we’re in, think about what we want and create bureaucracies to carry out those reforms. Bureaucracies need to be suited to solve the real problems at hand and run by experts, not political appointees. We need non-elected civil servants dedicated to upholding democratic standards and the rule of law to balance authoritarian and corrupt elected officials.
Terry Clayton
Freeland
