[Nightmares of the Second Age] The Daily Scribe

Esbilon said:
The problem is not that the bureaucracy is incompetent, it is rather that it serves itself rather than anyone else.
Allow me to take this moment to quote Robert Heinlein in the guise of Lazarus Long: 'In a mature society, "civil servant" is semantically equal to "civil master."' And once more advertise for the excellent British satirical comedy "Yes, Minister." http://www.veoh.com/watch/v21037637mzbJZ9n4?h1=Yes Minister 1.1 - Open Government
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Taking both your first point and the concept of "civil servitude" into account, I would indeed argue that self-serving bureaucracies are incompetent in regards to fulfilling their defined purpose.


Nice video though.
 
"Incompetence" implies a lack of ability, a self-serving bureaucracy is not incapable of serving its original purpose, it merely chooses not to.
 
Esbilon said:
"Incompetence" implies a lack of ability, a self-serving bureaucracy is not incapable of serving its original purpose, it merely chooses not to.
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Well, this begs the question - is the bureaucracy working together as a whole to serve its own collective interests (ie, the ruling party), or are members working individually to do so? Arguably, all bureaucracies possess both.


A bureaucracy whose members are individually self-serving is very likely incompetent as a collective, provided individual interests (reelection, economic gains, etc) are interfering with passing legislature that benefits the common good.


Alternatively, a bureaucracy whose members work collectively to serve their own collective interests in place of those of the public is, as you define it, not incompetent - merely self-serving.


/2cents
 
Here there's a huge difference between the US and Europe since our bureaucracies are apolitical and the staff serving one prime minister is the same as the one serving his opponent before him. This leads to a bureaucracy that to a much greater extent has a life of its own. As you will see if you continue with "Yes, Minister" ;)
 
I don't know how it is in Britain, but here in the States the inefficiency of all branches of government, both political and bureaucratic, and their tendency to impede and frustrate one another, making accomplishing anything difficult...is technically a feature, not a bug. It was part of the design from the beginning, under the theory that a too-efficient civil apparatus under the control of ill-disposed persons could do more damage in a few years than an incompetent one could do in generations.


Whether that theory is correct or not is a whole 'nother story.
 
[QUOTE="MaHaSuchi's700]Let the Lunars do it, or Tiger if he deems it worth it (it would fit the whole ascetic monk/martial artist thing anyways, I bet).

[/QUOTE]
I actually have 5 dots in survival and a few of the charms already.


Also, minor quibble: Tiger is a minimalist, not ascetic (the monk/martial artist part is accurate, though). Anything that needs to be done that can be done with his own inherent skill/charms will get a charm. Anything that needs to be done that is too far out of the Solar Exalted theme to be made in to a charm gets an artifact. So far I haven't run in to that problem yet.


Also also: How did we get from arguing about castes and skill selection to talking about real world political structures? :P
 
Wow did I start a conversation :D . I have considered sorcery but I do not think the rewards of sorcery justify the investment it requires. Specifically the five trials, having to hunt down spells in this broken 2nd age of the time consuming process of creating new ones.


Lore or Bureaucracy would be areas Ryu would be interested in. Or furthering his Presence tree though so I haven't needed to do much beyond craft specific stuffs.
 
Hunting down spells is not as big an issue as one might think.


1) The gold faction has very, very good access and they like us.


2) Today Rathess, tomorrow SPERIMIN!
 
I think it was declared by our god Sherwood that we have access to a solid amount of sorcerous tomes. Not sure, though. Alternately we could just ask our Sidereal buddies to share theirs. Sol knows they've been hoarding them.
 
For most of the spells you want to pick up, you were able to bring along sorcerous tomes that can contain most of what you'll want to learn, knowing that much knowledge would be lost in the time you were out of action.
 
Are you waiting on me? The last I saw, you guys were looking over the lists that Luna gave you, and were making plans on which gods to contact first.
 
Yeah, but we don't really know what's on the list, and their power level. We need Sash's advice, or so I think.
 
Ah. Got it. Give me two shakes, and I'll have a post for you.
 
I know full well the perils of coming up with many NPCs on the fly, so no need to rus it :)


I would, however, like to know their ranks and approximate power levels, e.g. 'weak rank 4 who works with warfare,' 'powerful rank 3 with ties to the Immaculate order,' and such.
 
It will take me a little bit of time to come up with that much detail, but I'll have it for you guys shortly.
 
Alternately, you can let us stunt it ;) Which may be what you've been waiting for us to do all along...
 
That would be great. With as expansive as the lists are, and with as many gods and functionaries up in Yu-Shan, it is a reasonable bet that you can find an ally on that in any of the Celestial Bureaus that you go to. The ones on the list of Bronze Faction supporters that have some criminal conduct to hold over their heads are more under my purview, and I'll have some details about that list in a little while.
 
I'll have to let Arynne and Esbilon take care of that, as the only book I have that deals with Yu-Shan is the sidereal splatbook.
 
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