UK Libertarian asks…
Posted by davidncl on February 15, 2010
“How do controlling bureaucrats get the way they are?”
Firstly, senior controlling bureaucrats constitute the ruling elite of the state. Head teacher’s, Chief cops, upper management of Local Education Authorities, University Vice Chancellor’s, senior civil servants, army offices, heads of PCT’s or hospitals, CPO’s – you name it.
There’s real social and financial reward for being a controlling bureaucrat. They have secure, well paid roles in the state, some measure of (constructed) social approval for those roles and subordinates who respect their authority – or a least who act as if they do. All the rewards of a privileged elite flow to them: Power, security, influence, status, prestige and money.
Typically the controlling bureaucrat is the product of a state’s educational system. From the earliest years he or she has been taught by state employees (controlling bureaucrats called teachers) operating inside state institutions run by more controlling bureaucrats.
The state uses the education system to manufacture the appearance of legitimacy by using every means it has to advance the prevailing justifying ideology (or narrative) of the state. At the moment that’s a kind of Market Socialism plus Methodism minus God. So the controlling bureaucrat believes he’s doing the right things for the right reasons – or at worst is only obeying orders from those who so believe.
In addition to pushing statism in education the state also deals with (though employment) the intellectual classes who might otherwise develop some kind of critique of the state. (I’d also suggest that the state’s schools are ignorance, boredom and compliance factories which seek to crush free sprints and inquiring minds.)
That whole statist world view of the controlling bureaucratic elite is shared by the media elite too – that’s another bureaucratic power structure used to used to advance the state’s justifying ideology, soak up the intellectuals and distract the masses.
