“Bureaucracy is the art of making the possible impossible”.    

                   ( Javier Pascual Salcedo)

I found this line to be so appropriate for many of todays  governmental bungling activities that I had to place it in my book, “Nice Place, Shame About the Human Race” at the top of Chapter 20;  “Advanced Germany? Lobbyism and Nursery-School Politics”.  In my opinion, it simply sums up the mentalities of most of our Western Governments.

But why do humans need this bureaucracy thing if it makes your lives that much harder?

Well to some extent Sir Winston, I believe the need for  bureaucracy is beneficial for  society – it creates structures, protects the individual and helps produce fairness among society.  At least that is what I think it is  supposed  to do.  Problems seem to arise with beaureaucracy  because  those making the bureaucratic rules have a tendency to loose touch with reality and seem to revel in their (mis)use of appointed power.

Why can´t humans just use their natural instincts to protect themselves and to steer them through life as to what is to be found as “fair” ?Mr Midnight and my feline friends do it all the time.  To my knowledge, I am unaware of  cat bureaucracy.   We live in the moment and get on with our lives.

Possibly because many “modern” humans seem to have lost most of their natural instincts. After having lived in artificial environments  for so long, many  seem to now not  know how to live in any other way.  One will often moan about ones surroundings,  but through  convenience, will carry on adhering to structures of yesterday and avoid much needed reforms.

That is a very dangerous course of action. As you already know daddy, I don´t like things being moved about in the house  too much either but that is part and parcel of “life”.  Whether we like it or not, life is always on the move. It never stops and will always force changes.

Well many “modern”  humans still need time to get to grips with that idea Sir Winston. Change remains  uncomfortable for many. They would obviously much  sooner carry on avoiding our changing  surroundings and continue to live their lives as though living in the european boom years of the 1960s /70s.  When things get ugly,  they then fail to understand why they may have lost their job or lifestyles, and will then  moan about the incompetences of others.   Such a tactic is possibly only human nature. Because bureaucratic institutions are also only human, they too,  will often fail to understand the need for change and adptation to more realistic policies.

It sounds as though humans are frightened of the future. You seem to stick in your past because the past is what you all know. The future is always uncertain. To tell you the truth, I can´t think towards the future. Cats (as is the same with all animals) only live in the moment.

Which is a great way of living Sir Winston but humans do need to plan their futures. Its just a shame that we always tend to  trip up over our shoes in the process – such as  wanting to move forward, but at the same time,   placing too much emphasis upon policies made from times past.

At the time, those past policies may have been correct, but a review and possible reform in some areas of those past policies must be seriously adopted if your “human race” is to succeed into the future. We cats love to stretch and keep our bodies flexible. Why is the human race not as flexible with its ideas and actions?

We obviously need  anguish and hardship with which to function properly.

Sounds whacky to me.

Take the European financial crisis for example.  I don´t know how long our financial crisis has now been on the go but there is not even a hint of a solution to our euro dilemmas in sight. Months fly by and our European governing bodies seem to stagger from one dilemma to the next. One area of concern is half-heartedly patched up and two more “holes in the system” appear.  If the roots of the dilemma are not sorted, (bank system being the main culprits) how is the ongoing euro crisis ever going to find a solution? Virtually month for month, a new country is added to the long list of countries requiring european financial bail outs. It´s a right mess.

It appears to be a   modern  human mentality  to want to “have something” without having done ones homework and weighed up all the pros and cons before executing ones policies. The “Euro” campaign was never properly thought out (having very few safety mechanisms).  Bureaucratic “mega-developments”; such as Germany´s “Stuttgart 21” project (a very expensive underground main railway station development) or the “way-out-of-control” financial disaster of the new Berlin Airport project being just a couple of  major financial disaster calamities of our “ruling elite”.

Have you all gone completely mad? How can you want to stick in the past and want to live your lifestyles in the present, when your surroundings are changing at a rapid pace?

I think we have become blind to reality.

As of yet, the German citizen has not really been confronted with the hard austerity measures having been  put in place in many neighbouring European countries, (thank goodness)  with many still choosing to continue to live their lives  in a dreamy world of yesteryear. Indeed, until something happens, why should we all start to panic?

The truth of the matter is that there are sadly still many areas of the German workplace who believe that they are victims to society and  have an automatic  right to receive even higher  rates of pay. There is nothing to be said against moderation but the trend does seem to be one of  “take as much as you can get”, regardless of job security or not. I suppose the crying and moaning will come at the dawn of realisation that one may have bitten off more than one can chew.

Can you give me an example for this “greediness”?

One extreme example could be the present strike wave in Germany; in particularly the one involving the German  car making industry.

Porsche, a sports car manufacturer, as well as Mercedes Benz have been particularly hard hit. The two companies are just down the road from me (Stuttgart area). The Unions want  5.5 %  more pay (12 month contract).

This may appear acceptable but Porsche has voluntarily given their workforce (every worker) a bonus payment of 7600 Euro (2011)  and 8111 Euro (for 2012) on top of their normal wage. This procedure is now quite common practice  in German car-making circles with Audi also issuing bonuses of about 8000 Euro to its workforce.

Has something somewhere gone completely out of hand?  Why would one  want to bite the hand that feeds?

Its nice that some companies try and take care of their workforce but I cannot understand how  so many people can get so  greedy and want  to strike when they are well looked after and the rest of Europe is thrown into financial turmoil.

What happens to the workers at those car plants  when there is nobody left (no money left) to purchase those nice motor cars?

Will they also feel that they are victims?

That´s amazing.  Are there other examples for your greediness and living outside of reality?

There are loads Sir Winston but I will only mention one final comment.

It is a shame that people do not look at their wage slip properly. In Germany, there is so much tax taken out of the pockets of the general-public that many find that they have less to spend then they used to have.

That would explain the obsessions for striking.

Whereas it is the “Net” wage which will  most interest the employee, it is the “Gross” wage which is actually paid out. Through  propoganda transmitted on various German  media channels, the German  general-public now  has the impression that the German State is poor and has little money with which to attend to all of its duties.  This fact is simply false.

The tax yield of the German State has constantly risen, especially  over the last 5 years, to an astronomical figure of over 600 billion Euros.

Is it no wonder that one finds it difficult to get by on a high wage?

Daddy I´m getting hungry. Can we talk about something more pleasant next time?  I have hardly had a chance to say anything and now I´m off to look for my food-sticks.

O.K. Mr Midnight,  although Sir Winston kept grilling me with his inquisitiveness.

See you next time (if you want) 🙂