Charles Brown wrote:
>
> Open Bureaucracy vs Bureacracy behind a Screen of Participatory
> democracy.
>
> Carrol
>
> ^^^^^^^^
>
> CB: Isn't "bureaucracy" a Weberian and not Marxist concept ? "Bureaucracy" is
>comparable to "middle class" in the damage it has done to the political consciousness
>of masses of workers and petit bourgeoisie, peasants.
Mostly correct. After some fiddling I've given up arriving at a precise
formulation of the necessary qualifications. Your further remarks
distinguishing the mass of workers in a bureaucracy from the ruling
elemtn is wholly correct. I've argued with students in the past about
one aspect of this distinction: the "face" of the Administration
(bureaucracy) are the clerks and secretaries and lower-level "working
supervisors," and hence just as Russian peasants looked to the Czar to
correct the local tyranny of minor officials or gentry, so students
would look to the Deans etc. to correct the tyranny or obstructionism
which they would blame on the grossly underpaid clerks they dealt with.
Same thing happens in the resentment people will quite naturally feel
(but misdirect) when they are dealing with the desk personnel in an
Emergency Room.
[Digression: As to the last, when I was going through that series of
destructive headaches a few years ago, I finally wrote out on a card
answers to all the questions one had to answer at the front desk. It is
really enraging to have to give your social security number or list the
drugs one is allergic to while half dead from a migraine.]
Carrol
