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From: Don <g@crcomp.net>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: (ReacTor) The System Works
Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2025 23:23:25 -0000 (UTC)
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Robert Woodward wrote:
>  James Nicoll wrote:
>
>> The System Works: Five SFF Organizations and Institutions Worth Defending
>>
>> Not all systems and bureaucracies are corrupt.
>>
>> <https://reactormag.com/the-system-works-five-sff-organizations-and-institutions-worth-defending/>
>
> Bureaucracies can stay on track if kept FIRMLY in hand. However, it is
> my contention that the bigger a bureaucracy becomes, the less
> intelligent it behaves (thus the jokes about military intelligence).

You share the optimism of THE PROTESTANT ETHIC AND THE SPIRIT OF
CAPITALISM by Weber. He posits an "iron cage" metaphor to encapsulate
modernity, bureaucracy, and individual agency. Judicious intervention
emancipates individualism inside the iron cage built by bureaucracy.

The past in THE GOLDEN AGE by Wright [1] also auspiciously agrees
with Weber. Unfortunately a gilded "iron cage" takes over in the far
future.

    "Among the Neptunians, Phaethon is a savior. If other
    stars had living worlds, it is we who could pioneer
    them. Immortality is a golden cage for you; who among
    you would dare to travel far beyond the noumenal
    mentality, beyond the sight and wisdom of the Sophotechs,
    beyond any hope for resurrection? Who except for
    Phaethon? Who else? We Neptunians. Listen."

Note.

[1] <https://scifiwright.com/samples/fic/golden-age-trilogy/the-golden-age>

Danke,

--
Don.......My cat's  )\._.,--....,'``.     https://crcomp.net/reviews.php
telltale tall tail /,   _.. \   _\  (`._ ,.    Walk humbly with thy God.
tells tall tales.. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'    Make 1984 fiction again.