gigantic, remote, opaque, bureaucratic, corrupt, irresponsible, insane
The mega-states, mega-agencies, mega-corporations, mega-institutions of all kinds are gigantic, remote, opaque, bureaucratic, corrupt, irresponsible entities.
Deep down people have a sense that something is insane but they can’t quite comprehend . . . what . . .
* * * *
There once was a kingdom in which all the grain crop one exceptional year somehow became poisoned, causing anyone who ate its products to go insane. That posed a terrible dilemma for the queen and her advisors. The stores of grain from previous years were very modest, not nearly enough to feed the entire population of the land, and there was no way to procure food from without. The kingdom would face either widespread famine and starvation, if the harvest was destroyed, or widespread madness and chaos. After much deliberation, the queen reluctantly decided to have the people go ahead and eat the grain, hoping its effects would be temporary, that at the very least human lives would be preserved. “But,” she added, “we must at the same time keep a few people apart and feed them an unpoisoned diet of the grain from previous years. That way there will at least be a few among us who will remember that the rest of us are insane.”
