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The point of view espoused in this essay is more radical and at the same time more pessimistic. Stated as succinctly as possible: the fundamental problem does not lie in any particular System but rather in Systems As Such
We give it here in full: THINGS (THINGS GENERALLY/ ALL THINGS/THE WHOLE WORKS) ARE INDEED NOT WORKING VERY WELL. IN FACT, THEY NEVER DID In more formal terminology: SYSTEMS IN GENERAL WORK POORLY OR NOT AT ALL More technically stated:[c. ][xiii] COMPLICATED SYSTEMS SELDOM EXCEED FIVE PERCENT EFFICIENCY
“What do we do with all this garbage?” After setting up a garbage-collection system, we find ourselves faced with a new Universe of Problems. These include questions of collective bargaining with the garbage collectors’ union, rates and hours, collection on very cold or rainy days, purchase and maintenance of garbage trucks, millage and bond issues, voter apathy, regulations regarding separation of garbage from trash, etc., etc.
(The System Tends To Oppose Its Own Proper Function),
SYSTEMS OPERATE BY REDISTRIBUTING ANERGY INTO DIFFERENT FORMS AND INTO ACCUMULATIONS OF DIFFERENT SIZES
preliminary way by Parkinson, who concluded that Administrative Systems maintain an average rate of growth of five to six percent per annum (corrected for inflation) regardless of the work to be done.
The System simply prefers to encroach, that is, to make someone else do the work.
Mr. Russell Baker has drawn attention to the development of the self-service gas station, the self-service supermarket, and the self-service salad bar in restaurants, thus demonstrating that the phenomenon of Encroachment
•The Aswan Dam, built at enormous expense to improve the lot of the Egyptian peasant, has caused the Nile to deposit its fertilizing sediment in Lake Nasser, where it is unavailable. Egyptian fields must now be artificially fertilized. Gigantic fertilizer plants have been built to meet the new need. The plants require enormous amounts of electricity. The dam must operate at capacity merely to supply the increased need for electricity which was created by the building of the dam.
A TEMPORARY PATCH WILL VERY LIKELY BE PERMANENT Since Systems generally Don’t Go Away, and since they occupy space, our landscape is now littered with the bleached bones and rotting carcasses of old attempted solutions to our problems: THE OLD SYSTEM IS NOW THE NEW PROBLEM or, as even more poignantly formulated by Parkinson: THE GHOST OF THE OLD SYSTEM CONTINUES TO HAUNT THE NEW
True, the company executives may call themselves ship-builders, but if you observe them at their work, you will see that it really consists of writing contracts, planning budgets, and other administrative activities. Clearly, they are not in any concrete sense building ships. In cold fact, a SYSTEM is building ships, and the SYSTEM is the shipbuilder. In brief: PEOPLE IN SYSTEMS DO NOT DO WHAT THE SYSTEM SAYS THEY ARE DOING
Doesn’t the universal availability of cheap, fresh, enriched white bread represent a great Systems-achievement in terms of nourishing the American population? Answer: The short answer is that it is not bread as that term is generally understood throughout the world. The French country-dweller or the Egyptian fellah, to name only two, would scarcely recognize the American product. To qualify as Bread in most parts of the world a product would have to be baked locally, from regionally grown whole grain flour, and sold still hot from the oven—all features that have been sacrificed in the American
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The power of the Naming Effect should not be underestimated. It is literally the power to bring new “realities” into existence.
various wars on “crime,” “poverty,” “addiction,” and the like not only continue in a state of chronic failure: they are doomed to be waged forever, so long as they continue to be framed in those terms. They perpetuate that which they have named.
THE REAL WORLD IS WHAT IS REPORTED TO THE SYSTEM
Positive Feedback (P.F.) obviously competes with Reality (R) for input into the System. The higher the P.F., the larger the quantity of Reality which fails to gain entrance into the System (Ro) and thus the higher the C.F.
As we all know, sensory deprivation tends to produce hallucinations. Similarly, immersion in a System tends to produce an altered mental state that results in various bizarre malfunctions, recognizable to us but not to the persons so immersed.
THE END RESULT OF EXTREME COMPETITION IS BIZARRENESS
A COMPLEX SYSTEM THAT WORKS IS INVARIABLY FOUND TO HAVE EVOLVED FROM A SIMPLE SYSTEM THAT WORKED The parallel proposition also appears to be true:[g. ] A COMPLEX SYSTEM DESIGNED FROM SCRATCH NEVER WORKS AND CANNOT BE MADE TO WORK. YOU HAVE TO START OVER, BEGINNING WITH A WORKING SIMPLE SYSTEM
THE SYSTEM BEHAVES AS IF IT HAS A WILL TO LIVE
•At Fermi Number One Fast Breeder reactor in Monroe, Michigan, a special anti-meltdown device was installed to deal with the remote possibility of a meltdown.[b.] The anti-meltdown device failed, blocking the flow of molten sodium through the reactor core and initiating a meltdown sequence. [lvi] [c.]
In the meantime, when encountering a Bug, the wise student will remember to ask: BUG OR BONANZA?
AS SYSTEMS GROW IN SIZE AND COMPLEXITY, THEY TEND TO LOSE BASIC FUNCTIONS
The System had expanded to involve the vital functions of the Nation as a whole. It could no longer be taken down without immense suffering in terms of unemployment, hunger and dislocation. Furthermore, it had to grow larger and more grandiose with each turn of the cycle, since the fate of all the people had become tied in with its continued operation.
IN SETTING UP A NEW SYSTEM, TREAD SOFTLY. YOU MAY BE DISTURBING ANOTHER SYSTEM THAT IS ACTUALLY WORKING
THE MESSAGE SENT IS NOT NECESSARILY THE MESSAGE RECEIVED
THE MEANING OF A COMMUNICATION IS THE BEHAVIOR THAT RESULTS This Axiom, which flies in the face of vulgar Common Sense, is basic.
In contrast, a poorly-functioning System begins to generate increasing numbers of messages, often shaped around such questions as “What went wrong?”, “How far along is Task X?”, and especially, “Why don’t we have better feedback?” As the System sinks deeper and deeper into the morass of unfinished tasks, the business of exchanging messages expands exponentially, until at last the non- functioning System is completely occupied with its own internal communication processes.
Interpersonal Interaction On Non-verbal Participation,” it has been understood that anyone who announces a program beginning with the word “Toward. . .” probably does not intend to get any where.[xciii] As Berne puts it, real people will not get on an airplane whose flight plan calls for it to fly “toward” New York. Nor will those who intend to get to a solution abide a program that merely aims “toward” the goal.
