Comments on: Knowledge Is Power http://www.showmedaily.org/2009/04/knowledge-is-power.html Advancing liberty with responsibility by promoting market solutions for Missouri public policy Wed, 23 May 2012 17:39:11 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Ian Titter http://www.showmedaily.org/2009/04/knowledge-is-power.html/comment-page-1#comment-2869 Ian Titter Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:43:30 +0000 http://www.showmedaily.org/?p=3937#comment-2869 Administrators are bureaucrats. They are ruled by precedent and the status quo. Change is threatening and uncomfortable. It is also a potential point of failure. What if it doesn't work? What if it gores the sacred cow of a more senior bureaucrat? What if it works and makes jobs redundant? My Job? Budgets are good. They apportion money for established programs. They are a source of stability. They are inflexible and it is too much trouble to go to the finance committee and alter them just because something might be a good idea. A person could get a reputation as a free-thinker, 'not one-of-us'. Quash new ideas for now. Safety first! (One day, when I am a senior bureaucrat, I may be asked to be innovative, forward thinking and progressive, to introduce new and exciting programs. It will be a good idea to have a few possibilities up my sleeve at the time so I'm not caught short. If I'm not asked, no great loss. We already perform well enough. Why change?) Mediocrity rules. Administrators are bureaucrats. They are ruled by precedent and the status quo. Change is threatening and uncomfortable. It is also a potential point of failure. What if it doesn’t work? What if it gores the sacred cow of a more senior bureaucrat? What if it works and makes jobs redundant? My Job?

Budgets are good. They apportion money for established programs. They are a source of stability. They are inflexible and it is too much trouble to go to the finance committee and alter them just because something might be a good idea. A person could get a reputation as a free-thinker, ‘not one-of-us’. Quash new ideas for now. Safety first!

(One day, when I am a senior bureaucrat, I may be asked to be innovative, forward thinking and progressive, to introduce new and exciting programs. It will be a good idea to have a few possibilities up my sleeve at the time so I’m not caught short. If I’m not asked, no great loss. We already perform well enough. Why change?)

Mediocrity rules.

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