4 ms·

True but what's different is the groupthink and "ends justify the means" mentality. There's a qualitative difference

• monocasa 5y ago
  No, those features have also been intrinsic to bureaucrat classes as a whole since the dawn of organized society. Bueracrats are sort of like neurons in the organism of society. They don't have a lot individual intrisic power, but gain power by moving to common (albeit very complex) beat, and commanding the other types of cells according to the machinations of that emergent beat. That manifests as both groupthink as they attempt to play their part in the neural system as a whole, and "ends justify the means" mentality as they look at the rest of us as other specialized cells that exist to serve the societal organism as a whole. I guarantee you that on average a 15th century BCE Egyptian bureaucrat trended the same way, as it's core to the space.
  • evv555 5y ago
    Devil is in the details and I also guarantee you there are important differences between how western bureaucrats operate and how they operate in USSR/elsewhere despite any commonalities that can be drawn.
    • monocasa 5y ago
      I've never said there weren't differences. Only that the specific aspects being pointed out in this thread as signs of continuing soviet corruption of American values are actually aspects of bureaucracy as a whole older than recorded history.
      • evv555 5y ago
        There's a difference between operating within the constructs of power and having a reductionist worldview of power. The 2nd one is more like a self-fulfilling prophecy.