Cleansing the Rancid Bureaucracy

And Understanding Irreconcilable Differences

Photo by Jeff Nissen on Unsplash

Witnessing the diverse set of reactions to all of the corruption and waste that the DOGE group has discovered has perplexed me in several ways. It is difficult to understand the perspective of those not wanting to stop any and all corruption, and rather are willing to fight to maintain it. In particular, the most difficult perspective to understand is that of those who have not benefited by the corruption. They still find ways to cheer along with their chosen political team, red or blue. It reminds me of a difficulty I have had since childhood: I cannot smell very well.

What does a sense of smell have to do with political theory or corruption?

Every so often, I will be cooking something on the stove. Upstairs, on the other side of the house, and sometimes behind a closed door, inevitably, one of my children, who is probably more hungry than the others, will exclaim, “You’re cooking chicken! Good!”

Meanwhile, I am standing in front of the stove. My nose is positioned directly above the rising, wafting aromas, and I couldn’t tell the chicken from beef, pork, fish, or any other food. Sometimes, when I am famished, and after a long day, being in the presence of warm food will trigger stomach rumblings, but there is not a chance, that if I were blindfolded, that I could tell which type of food it was just from the aroma emanating from it.

My children’s perspective on the other hand is vastly different. They can not only smell the food, but also use the fragrant tendrils of odor coming from the dish to discern exactly what cuisine lies before them. They cannot understand my perspective. I cannot understand theirs.

In fact, for me, there is no amount of evidence that could be presented to me that would alter my perspective.

I could design and execute a training regimen. For weeks, plates of the same entrée would be brought to me and placed under my nose. The theory would be that once I had been exposed enough to the same scents, and I could associate the scent with sights of its origin, I would eventually be able to identify the fragrances. I could finally enjoy that world I have never known where Spring flowers bloom not just visually but also aromatically. Rather than watching a sommelier swirl wine around in a glass and think the practice ridiculous, I could understand why it is done in the first place and enjoy the smell of the fermented grapes and other spices in the wine.

Alas, despite the thoroughness of any effluviant training, my limitations are physical: Nerves damaged a long time ago by a baseball hit hard into my nose. There is, unfortunately, no amount of evidence that can change my perspective.

All of that said, I am self-aware that I have a problem with my olfactory senses. In a way, I hyperbolically fashion my physical disadvantages as a unique insight into Bastiat’s concept of “the unseen.” I cannot see the aromas wafting around me, yet I am aware they are there and that they have impacts on others I cannot immediately perceive.

Today, the stench of massive and widespread government corruption is being revealed hourly.

The revelations about government funding being directed towards media organizations like Politico, Reuters, and the Associated Press, should lead to massive questions about everything we have been told for decades. How much of it was propaganda? How much of it was true?

Then there are the revelations about the resources at organizations like USAID — ostensibly a charitable organization directed towards international development and assistance to impoverished nations around the world. Rather, the resources were, in fact, largely siphoned off into large six-figure salaries for many of the directors of the NGOs the money was directed to, and not at all to providing aid. Has it ever achieved its goal of ending extreme poverty in any impoverished nation? Who is complaining about the aid’s withdrawl?

As these shocking things are revealed, we should recognize that there are many people, who, like me and my broken sense of smell, are standing in front of the stove, with their nose directly above the rising, rotten scents, yet are still unable to perceive the problem despite all of the evidence in front of them.

Even in the case that our perceptions lead us to wildly different conclusions and to live with wildly different worldviews than others around us, Bastiat’s point with his concept of “the unseen” is that there is an underlying reality that exists despite our limited perspectives.

In my case, I find it very difficult to understand people who can perceive and delight in smelling pleasant aromas. Intellectually, I can comprehend the underlying reality that certain things smell differently, but I cannot experience them myself.

As the underlying reality of our dysfunctional government continues to come into the public sphere, perspectives will necessarily be challenged, and resources will hopefully be re-directed to more productive means.

Most importantly, we must not let our different perspectives limit our ability to connect with each other and perceive each other’s realities to the extent possible.

I may not be able to smell. I cannot experience the world that my children can. They cannot understand why I cannot. In the meantime, we can share our perspectives and laugh about all of it. Jokes about bad odors shared among young men are necessarily a bonding experience.

Then, there is the curious case of those people who can smell, and still don’t mind the scent of rotten odors or corruption amongst bureaucracies. It is fairly self-evident that these people benefit from the corruption in some manner, and therefore their perspectives need challenging at every step.

When their hypocrisy and influence is brought to the light, the reds who cannot understand the blues, and the blues who cannot understand the reds, can at least intellectually grasp that there may be a better way. Sharing our perspectives, finding common ground, and rooting out corruption together — together — is necessarily the bonding experience our country might desperately need.