“I live in the Managerial Age, in a world of “Admin.” The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid “dens of crime” that Dickens loved to paint. It is not done even in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voices. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the office of a thoroughly nasty business concern.” ― C.S. Lewis
There has always been a queer mystique associated with people who drive the future of a firm with 6000 employees or of a million inhabitants of a city. Intense secret, intrigue, mutual rivalry, intense deep thinking, and supposedly superhuman abilities are associated with the top thinktanks.
Sure, they’ve wisdom and experience, but they are like other thinking purposeful humans, albeit with access to information that other employees are unaware of. The odds against correct decision-making are heavy, the competitive pressures are heavy – yet, it makes no case for seclusion of the decision-making process. Such processes can be a democratic as those about a nation (without commonalizing state secrets) – and few progressive organizations are waking up to this.
