Washington's 'cogs' in the bureaucracy

[EstimatedProphet]

I used to work in DC as a minor-level government cog in an obscure agency. No security clearance, no secret information, nothing of th sort. However, through my social contacts I met a lot of people in other bureaus, some of them in potentially secret positions. That's the way of Washington-it's OK because they don't talk about their work, and no one asks either. And, that leads to an issue that doesn't get discussed, but is instrumental as to why it is we don't see more whistleblowing going on, even with all the scandals.

By governmental design, the bureaus have their specific responsibilities, and thanks to the way the government is funded, the bureaus become very territorial. The situation results in a kind of Balkanization, where each governmental employee that has a shred of responsibility fights like hell to hang onto it. The government is very compartmentalized, each person at each desk has their 'turf'. We all know this. But what no one stops to think about is where those people come from. Most of them are not political idealogues, often they're not politically motivated in any serious way. Sometimes they're even politically blind, and are there for their expertise only. The lack of knowledge about what's going on at the next desk, combined with political disinterest at best, result in a situation where people simply refuse to see what things go on around them, or how their work relates to the overall situation.

I met several different government employees while I was there. I could perhaps count on one hand the number of them that had any kind of political leaning at all, left or right. They take their orders from farther up the chain, and they duck their heads and do their jobs. Period. To do anything else would be threatening in their situation. The thought that their work could possibly be connected to corruption in the administration is simply not something they ever stop and think about. Secure positions or not, they simply don't think about their work in the larger picture of the Bush administration scandals, because the larger picture is too hard to see.

Apathy in the government staff is bred. It's a survival trait. And for may others, lack of seeing the big picture takes over for apathy. That's how scandals can go on that people outside the Beltway know about, and people inside are surprised to find they're connected to.