A comment left on my previous entry regarding American transitioning to fascism and how Ron Paul was right all along has inspired me to posit an idea as to why, exactly, government is broken. Many people see government as a nameless, faceless organization which works for the public good due in large part to it’s very inhuman nature. They feel that because the government bureaucracy is inhuman, it isn’t swayed by human needs and emotions and can therefore operate impartially while acting in the best interest of each individual member of society. What many people fail to realize is that although the sheer size of government makes it feel inhuman and impersonal, bureaucrats are human. Bureaucrats are driven by human needs and desires–greed, empathy, boredom.

One bureaucrat may embezzle “government” funds (that’s your money) to buy himself a vacation home, while another may do it to feed starving orphans in Africa. Very different motives may account for the same dishonest action. And because of that illusion of government as an inhuman entity, they don’t feel bad for doing it because they don’t feel as if anyone is getting hurt. If they could see those “government” funds as the hard earned labor you and I, and stop for a moment to realize that by taking that money to use for their own personal desires, they’ve made us their own personal slaves, the system might begin to right itself.

Of course, not all bureaucrats will embezzle funds. Many will simply sway government action (and inaction) through their human nature. They will sway decisions and policy based on their own politics and personal desires. They will waste “government” resources (that’s your resources) because they’re bored with their job and can’t be fired. Perhaps if we stop looking at bureaucracy as an inhuman thing and start looking at it as a conglomerate of human people then we can start to see other ways of solving the problems inherent in government. Government feels like a single uncaring behemoth, but we must learn to see the individuals therein before we will ever fix what’s broken.