In today's Times, David Brooks' paranoia hits new heights. He points to a recent blockbuster article by Priest and Arkin about the growing size of security bureaucracy in the post 9/11 era. He writes that these expansions plus the financial reform laws and health care program has resulted in a ballooning of the federal government. He says that we're entering a progressive era which places too much emphasis on experts.

When historians look back on this period, they will see it as another
progressive era. It is not a liberal era — when government intervenes to
seize wealth and power and distribute it to the have-nots. It’s not a
conservative era, when the governing class concedes that the world is
too complicated to be managed from the center. It’s a progressive era,
based on the faith in government experts and their ability to use social
science analysis to manage complex systems.

Continue reading “A Long Rant about Bureaucracy” →