way down in a hole

Thoughts triggered by watching The Wire: When I started in the world of work, I regularly assumed that everyone above me was competent and that decisions were made with the purpose of the organisation in mind. Admittedly I had grown up listening to my parents' complaints about incompetent colleagues & superiors but they were also keen for me to join a large, powerful organisation that offered a decent salary. There seemed no disconnect between these two positions.

Large organisations tend to be dysfunctional. It's not that they don't do what they're supposed to (and in The Wire that means pushing drugs or catching criminals), it's that they seem to achieve these goals in spite of of themselves. It's really all about individuals getting and retaining material wealth and power over others. We may tell ourselves that the "invisible hand" of the free market makes everything work fine or that some technocratic official knows best but these institutions seem to decrease in effectiveness as the money and effort that we pump into them increases. This can be corporations, government entities, not-for-profits, even entire industries (hello banking sector!).

Institutions both enable and constrain. In engaging with them as individuals we make a trade, I'm not sure how often that trade is worth making. Human institutions will always be flawed but is there a way out of "the game"?