MUSEUM OF BUREAUCRACY
What could go wrong?
From the bewildering to the funny, the impenetrable to the dreadful, bureaucracy is an unavoidable feature in the landscape of modern life. We are pleased to announce that the Museum of Bureaucracy, first of its kind in the world, will soon open its doors. The museum will launch in three phases:
Phase I: A Virtual Museum at this web address (coming soon)
Phase II: A series of pop-up museum exhibitions in a variety of places
Phase III: A permanent Museum physically located in Washington, DC (where else?)
As illustrated in the 19th century cartoons below, much of the problem with bureaucracy starts with (your) money...
The museum will explore major aspects of bureaucracy, from the lighter side to the darker, and will present exhibits designed to enlighten, entertain, delight and amaze. Different pavilions will focus on (1) the history of bureaucracy; (2) the problem with bureaucracy; (3) bureaucracy in arts and literature; and (4) good bureaucrats. In addition, a centerpiece of the museum will be a cavalcade of bureaucratic excesses, including some of the most fascinating (not to mention outrageous) boondoggles, large and small. Though bureaucracies around the world are within its scope, the Museum of Bureaucracy will emphasize their occurrence in the United States
Stay tuned to this website for further announcements about the status of the museum...
Among myriad features displayed in detail at the Museum of Bureaucracy:
Did you know that...... the term "red tape" is believed to have come from 16th-century Spain, where the government of Charles V used red ribbon to bind the most important documents requiring the immediate attention of the Council of State, to separate them from ordinary documents that were bound with string or plain ribbon...
... "Museum of Government Waste" was a documentary by Jim and Ellen Hubbard that followed an average American who visits Washington, DC to try and convince Congress to fund the ultimate boondoggle: a Museum of Government Waste...
... Douglas Adams (of "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" fame) created a computer game in 1987 called "Bureaucracy," the brochure for which began with the words: "Our records show that you do not have a license to operate this software..."
... in 1978, the U.S. Office of Education (the functions of which were later absorbed into the Department of Education) spent approximately $850,000 (current dollars) to develop a curriculum to teach college students how to watch TV (and received a "Golden Fleece Award" from then Senator William Proxmire, one of 168 such awards he issued from 1975-88)...
... according to Senator Jeff Flake's "Wastebook, PORKémon Go," the National Eye Institute and National Science Foundation spent $300,000 to discover that girls play with Barbie dolls more than boys — and can better pick out the faces of Barbie from a lineup of assorted dolls...
...the Army spent three and a half years developing a football field-sized blimp, known as the Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV), that was to provide continuous surveillance of the Afghan battlefield starting by the end of 2011; however, the blimp never left New Jersey, where it made its first and only voyage, lasting a total of 90 minutes; the Army halted the project in 2013 after spending nearly $300 million--not that it was a total loss: the Army sold the blimp back to the contractor that was building it... for around $300 thousand...
"Every man but one a subordinate clerk in a bureau, what an alluring utopia! What a noble cause to fight for!"
Ludwig von Mises
Bureaucracy (1944)
"In such a large governmental office as the Count’s, it may occasionally happen that one department ordains this, another that; neither knows of the other, and though the supreme control is absolutely efficient, it comes by its nature too late, and so every now and then a trifling miscalculation arises." Franz Kafka (via the "Superintendent" character)The Castle (1926)
Thank you for visiting. Come back again soon for updates.
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