Beyond an immediate circle of friends and relatives, nobody cares about anybody. This may sound depressing, but is actually a good thing. Imagine how terribly oppressive the world would be if bureaucrats truly cared about us.
As Clive Lewis once said: “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
Luckily for us, bureaucrats have no special interest in us. They soon tire of us unless we do something to make things personal. This extends to all sorts of rules and regulations. Nobody really cares whether we follow all the rules. The appearance of compliance is as good as real compliance. What matters to bureaucrats are the aggregate numbers. Boxes need to be checked, and papers need to be signed. They have absolute no interest in us as individuals.
This is good to in mind when reading scary Orwellian news about surveillance and forced vaccinations. A complete lack of genuine passion in the stuffy offices of bureaucrats gives us plenty of opportunity to do whatever we please. All we have to be careful of is that we're not too candid about our non-compliance.
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| C. S. Lewis |
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