There are a lot of crazy people out there with ideas they think are wonderful. They believe themselves to be leaders when in reality they are managers, interested not in the outcome as much as they are in the process.
The story is told of a work crew in sub-saharan Africa tasked with cutting a rail line through the jungle. The management team organized the workers into one of the most efficient processes the world has ever seen. The crews doing the cutting were constantly rotated to keep the workers fresh and preserve strength. Support teams followed up close behind supplying a steady refresh of sharp tools and replacement items to push the work along. Managers sent back reports that impressed shareholders at the amazing progress being made by the crew which cut through the brush at a rate unexpected in that day. Everything seemed to be working perfectly.
One day, a scout went up a tree to verify the trajectory of the rail line and to survey the progress. It was not until then that the crew realized they were ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE RIVER. He yelled down to inform them, went to see the management, and argued. He was told to shut up, because they were making good time.
We have people in government (politically speaking as well as other ways) who are not concerned with what is being done or if it's being done well. They are like the commander in the Bridge Over the River Quai who don't care that what they are building will be used for evil ends because they beat deadlines and received amazing bonuses for their great work. This kind of attitude is to be accepted and praised in America according to the liberals. If it had been this way in the 1940s, we would have sent back the German physicists to Hitler by whose work we eventually developed the atomic bomb. Perish the thought if Hitler had one and we did not!
These same people point to nations, organizations, and families that do not share our values. They point China as a model for efficiency, ignoring the fact that although China might build roads, bridges and buildings more quickly than we do that it also builds gulags and concentration camps more quickly and efficiently than we. The value and virtue of a project is never questioned as long as we are making good time.
In the end, the work of that crew in Africa was completely wasted. It wasn't headed anywhere useful or valuable, and so the entire project would have to be scrapped as useless work. At the same time as people in our government do this, they insist that all we need is more time, more stimulus, more QE, and more of the same, that the problem is not that management made a mistake but that the surveyor had the audacity to draw attention to the mistake. "We're headed the wrong way!" "Yes, but at least we're making good time."
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