The cycle begins anew

I recently picked up a bargain copy of John Lawrence's History of Russia. Been an interesting read...

The servants of the tsar learned to expect brutal punishment if they exceeded their instructions, but they could always protect themselves by getting previous sanction for their actions from higher authority. In this way it became established that every important decision must emanate from the highest quarters... in Muscovy the crafty scribes and ignorant noblemen who guided the tsar's hands were barred from reality by a confused mass of precedents and paperasserie, while the intricacies of rule by paper delayed every decision and multiplied the opportunities for deceit and corruption... (p.138)

Especially since it seems history, once again, repeats itself...

The idea of freedom as personal power got pushed aside in recent decades by a new idea of freedom -- where the focus is on the rights of whoever might disagree. Daily life in America has been transformed. Ordinary choices -- by teachers, doctors, officials, managers, even volunteers -- are paralyzed by legal self-consciousness. Did you check the rules? Who will be responsible if there's an accident? A pediatrician in North Carolina noted that "I don't deal with patients the same way any more. You wouldn't want to say something off the cuff that might be used against you."

Here we stand, facing the worst economy since the Great Depression, and Americans no longer feel free to do anything about it. We have lost the idea, at every level of social life, that people can grab hold of a problem and fix it. Defensiveness has swept across the country like a cold wave. We have become a culture of rule followers, trained to frame every solution in terms of existing law or possible legal risk. The person of responsibility is replaced by the person of caution. When in doubt, don't.