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Category Archives: bureaucracy
The Roy Batty Principle, or the “Empathectomy for fun and profit”
In this life, you are rewarded for not having integrity, compassion, empathy etc. If you defend your underlings (and the broader population they are supposed to serve – pupils, prisoners etc) against some stupid and damaging scheme that your boss … Continue reading
Posted in a little self-knowledge, bureaucracy, fear
Tagged Dilbert Principle, empathectomy, Peter Principle
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Of meetings and pass-the-parcel blame. #lrb #nhs
And the Peter Principle too. From the latest London Review of Books letters page …. Taylor’s suggestion that doctors haven’t played their part in management is a half-truth. Many have, and found it a bruising and futile experience; typically the … Continue reading
Posted in bureaucracy
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Juking the Stats: #TheWire for real, yo?
NYPD on Trial: Police Say They Are Forced to Harass Kids in Order to Meet Quotas NYPD whistleblowers say quotas are forcing them to make bogus, racist stops, summonses and arrests. March 27, 2013 | Last week, NYPD whistleblowers Adhyl … Continue reading
Posted in activism, bureaucracy, competence, politics
Tagged juking the stats, NYPD, The Wire
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Anthropologist: “Empire tells great stories” Awesome article! #Eritrea #Academia #Ritual
You can’t do excerpts on something this good. You have to just put in a hyperlink and leave the click decision to your reader(s). http://thedisorderofthings.com/2013/03/18/in-praise-of-question-marks-reflections-on-critical-methodologies-narrative-voice-and-the-writing-of-the-political-the-limits-of-language/ Hat-tip to Mrs Towers.
Posted in a little self-knowledge, activism, bureaucracy, death, politics
Tagged academics, Eritrea
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Fun with Dick and Jane – the academic perspective – Calvin and Hobbes on fire…
Yep. Hat-tip to KM!
The Panopticon, the Panspectron – look at Gaza and see how the world will be…
Have just read a fascinating and terrifying academic article called “The Gaza Strip as Panopticon and Panspectron: The Disciplining and Punishing of a Society.” [pdf] It’s by Michael Dahan (PhD) of Sapir College, Israel. The take home is that Gaza … Continue reading
Posted in activism, apocalypse, bureaucracy, climate, death, economics, fear, politics, technoscience
Tagged Deleuze, Michael Dahan, Michel Foucault, panopticon, panspectron, participatory surveillance, surveillance
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Glasgowsexworker pwns a “choice” idiot
Apparently there is some sort of dreadful “consultation” document knocking around about Scottish sex workers (regulation, decriminalisation? I dunno*). Glaswgowsexworker, who subscribes to Dwight Towers, has absolutely owned the author of this document. The whole long response, all of it, … Continue reading
Posted in activism, bureaucracy, competence, framing, politics
Tagged Anarchist Whore
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The Dead Horse Theory
I’m gratified that six hits to this site yesterday came from people who’d searched for “humility and self-knowledge.” I am obviously one of the best and near-perfect sources of information on the Intern… no, wait. Meanwhile, this, from a wall … Continue reading
Posted in a little self-knowledge, bureaucracy, competence
Tagged Michael Frayn, Peter Principle, politics, Pournelle's Law
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With our X-ray specs, we see what we want…
Scientists can be just as myopic. In 1956, the Oxford-based epidemiologist Alice Stewart demonstrated, with startling data, that the chances of childhood cancer were vastly increased by X-raying pregnant mothers. At the time, these cancers were killing one child every … Continue reading
