Common Sense Where Art Thou?
Giving credit where credit is due, our system of laws and government regulations began with the best of intentions as attempts to create rules and regulations that would be just and fair for all. Unfortunately, what developed is a bureaucratic muddle where we rigidly stick to procedures while ignoring the spirit and intent.
It has been put forth by the proponents of this system that if everything is laid out precisely, then all like cases will be treated the same and this will produce fairness. There is at least one obvious flaw in that premise. It is impossible to cover all possibilities. Unless something always occurs in the exact same place at the exact same time, with the exact same circumstances, there will be inherent differences which will affect the outcome. Uniformity without the flexibility to take these differences into consideration will inevitably produce uneven results.
Years ago, as a new manager, I noticed that employees routinely denied customer requests based on one regulation or another that did not make sense in the case at hand. In response, we had a series of staff meetings where we discussed various regulations and what they were intended to accomplish. In light of that information, we talked about some individual situations where a rule was applied with negative results. It was like watching light bulbs go on over one head after another as they began to see that rules sometimes not only did not accomplish the intended purpose, but actually interfered with bringing a business transaction to a reasonable conclusion. And so, in that particular place of business, the rebirth of common sense and good judgment began.
Would that we could begin that rebirth at all levels of our government. There are drawbacks to this of course. As things stand, the people in charge of our government and its agencies manage to avoid making decisions for which they would be accountable. Instead, they spend their time observing the rules and steps of the process with little or no thought about what the end result will be or when it will be achieved. No wonder it takes so long to get anything done in government and that we frequently wind up with a camel while trying to build a horse.
This strict observance of rules without use of common sense results in stories like "Fema and The Ice". Fema spent years and millions of our tax dollars transporting and storing bags of ice which have now been declared unfit for human consumption and will be destroyed.
We shake our heads in disbelief when we hear these outrageous stories. But shaking our heads is not likely to change anything. On the other hand, if we set guidelines rather than strict rules, and give our leaders the flexibility to exercise common sense and good judgment, change is possible.
At the same time it must be made clear that officials are responsible for the consequences of their decisions even though responsibility is the last thing bureaucrats want. Responsibility requires effort, courage and leadership, qualities many of them lack. Our Founding Fathers exhibited these traits as did the pioneers who developed the territories that became these United States. These are the root values that built our country and without them we are no longer flourishing. Requiring accountability from our officials would weed out the bureaucrats and bring us real leaders who are willing to accept the responsibility that is a fundamental part of leadership.
The alternative? We can continue down the path we are on and repeat history by following the once great Roman Empire into extinction.