“A Hard Road to Reality”
by Cody Hall
Sibel Edmond’s story is one that history knows all too well. So long as the people of this world are indoctrinated into accepting the illusion of authority, there will be stories of those strong willed people that strive for truth & justice that must walk the hard road to reality.
As soon as I picked up this book & started reading, Sibel’s story sucked me in & didn’t let go until I finished the book 8 hours later. While I lost any hope for justice through the U.S. government’s institutions long ago, as well as understand economically that when an establishment is funded through force/coercion it is not subject to market forces (perverting the incentives - in government, do a bad job you get more money); it still was quite shocking & infuriating to read first hand accounts of the results of such perverse government incentives. Here is one of many quotes from Sibel’s supervisor when she worked as an FBI translator:
“I know, I know,” he said dismissively, “but still … for instance, you worked so hard and too fast to translate this agent’s document, and want to go the extra mile … You say this guy is desperate; well, sometimes desperation is a good thing. Better to have this guy complain to and pressure his bosses and HQ for not getting his translated documents than to make him satisfied and happy … and have him forget about it later. All I’m asking you is to be a better friend to your colleagues: accompany them to lunches and coffee breaks, take regular breaks, and do not work this fast, that’s all.”
There are so many other examples that Sibel provides in her story that glaringly show the consequences of allowing monopoly governmental organizations funded through force & coercion to exist.
The first third of the book reads like a spy thriller at times. More than once I had to remind myself that I was reading a memoir of a real woman’s life.
Initially Sibel had to deal with the perverse economic incentives within a hierarchical bureaucracy. However, once the story came to the “penetration” of foreign spies into the translation department in which she worked, the outrageous bureaucratic bull-s*** really hit the fan.
Imagine, having absolute proof of an extremely serious & pervasive national security breach. Imagine fighting tooth & nail to take this proof to higher & higher levels of “authority” and each time, discovering the “authority” does not want to know. That it will make them look bad. Information that, if ignored, could spell disaster for an untold amount of human lives.
Here is a quote from the head of Counterintelligence for the FBI during Sibel’s time working as a translator:
His boss didn’t let him finish. “It’s not only that, Dennis, you know that … Ms. Edmonds, the bureau is already under pressure regarding the Turkish operations. The targets, as you are now aware, are connected to people in high places: State Department, Pentagon, White House, Congress … No one wants any investigation … The activities have too many beneficiaries in this country—the CIA, weapons companies, military, lobbying firms, Congress, you name it. Now,” he continued, “on top of this pressure, we appear to have a ‘real spy’ problem, the Dickersons. I don’t think HQ executives want to know about this; they don’t want this to explode. They have made it very clear. Saccher and I tried, but we’re being prevented from pursuing this espionage case. They didn’t say it in so many words, but I know the lingo. They want this to go away …”
Perverse incentives. What Sibel’s story showed me was first hand experience of the perverse type of incentives that Austrian Economics has taught me when an organization is not funded through voluntary means. It’s one thing to know these ideas theoretically, but it’s a whole different thing to read of the first hand accounts from within the beast of the government.
Here is one last extremely revealing quote from Sibel’s second supervisor during her employment with the FBI:
“Because things work differently in government. While private companies are concerned with efficiency, security and productivity, the government couldn’t care less. Of course, the jobs here come with other pluses, less work, more benefits, retirement …” She paused to ensure that I was following this unique revelation. “You need to know a little about some policies that are followed religiously in the FBI. Policy one: one for all, all for one. Policy two: problems and embarrassments are always swept under the rug—always. They don’t want to know about serious and embarrassing problems, no matter how scandalous. They don’t want people reporting these types of issues and cases; especially on the record, in writing.”
Once Sibel decided to attempt to expose the truth, making the hard walk to reality up the hierarchical structure of the State system, at times I thought of the christian story of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The 12 steps of that story reminded me of each step of the State hierarchy Sibel went to with her first hand knowledge of the State corruption she had witnessed. With each step, there was no justice. With each step it was ever more painful. To bear the truth can be such a painful & merciless path.
However, with each step the illusion of the virtue of the United States government broke away ever more.
In the end, Sibel realized that to be a truth teller & spread the ideas of freedom/liberty, we have to do it ourselves. We can’t rely on illusory “authority” that doesn’t have our best interests in mind. We must rely on individuals who hold truth, reason, and virtue as paramount.
If you have any family or friends that enjoy reading spy novels or just interesting/compelling stories, and as a result of State indoctrination, still believe that government authority has the people’s best interest in mind, buy them a copy of this book.
For if they read this book and walk the hard road to reality with Sibel Edmonds, they won’t ever look at the world the same way again.
characterize so many of the Olympic events so far. To reduce the embarrassment and sense of scandal, organizers have carted in British troops–dressed in their camo!–to fill seats at gymnastics events, while other easily manipulated, low-time-cost groups on the government’s payroll are also being bussed in to other sparsely-attended venues.
![[HTML Version] || [PDF Version]
Mises said it right here. In these pages we find the crushing critique of nearly all modern reform movements, summed up in his sweeping conclusion:
“The champions of socialism call themselves progressives, but they recommend a system which is characterized by rigid observance of routine and by a resistance to every kind of improvement. They call themselves liberals, but they are intent upon abolishing liberty. They call themselves democrats, but they yearn for dictatorship. They call themselves revolutionaries, but they want to make the government omnipotent. They promise the blessings of the Garden of Eden, but they plan to transform the world into a gigantic post office. Every man but one a subordinate clerk in a bureau. What an alluring utopia! What a noble cause to fight!”
Mises explains that the core choice we face is between rational economic organization by market prices or the arbitrary dictates of government bureaucrats. There is no third way. And here he explains how it is that bureaucracies can’t manage anything well or with an eye for economics at all. It is a devastating and fundamental criticism he makes, an extension of his critique of socialism. It has never been answered.
Written long before Public Choice economists began to take up the subject, Mises describes bureaucracies as both self-interested and economically irrational (thereby improving on the modern Public Choice critique). There is no reinventing government: if we are to have government do things for us, bureaucracies, which cannot behave efficiently, will have to do the work. This small book has grown in stature as Western economies have become more and more bureaucratized.
This volume’s contents include:
Preface to the 1962 Edition
1. The opprobrious connotation of the term bureaucracy
2. The American citizen’s indictment of bureaucratism
3. The “Progressive” view of bureaucratism
4. Bureaucratism and totalitarianism
5. The alternative: profit management or bureaucratic management
Preface to the 1944 Edition
Introduction
I. Profit Management
1. The operation of the market mechanism
2. Economic calculation
3. Management under the profit system
4. Personnel management under an unhampered labor market
II. Bureaucratic Management
1. Bureaucracy under a despotic government
2. Bureaucracy within a democracy
3. The essential features of bureaucratic management
4. The crux of bureaucratic management
5. Bureaucratic personnel management
III. Bureaucratic Management of Publicly Owned Enterprises
1. The impracticability of government all-round control
2. Public enterprise within the market economy
IV. Bureaucratic Management of Private Enterprises
1. How government interference and the impairment of the profit motive drive business toward bureaucratization
2. Interference with the height of profit
3. Interference with the choice of personnel
4. Unlimited dependence on the discretion of government bureaus
V. The Social and Political Implications of Bureaucratization
1. The philosophy of bureaucratism
2. Bureaucratic complacency
3. The bureaucrat as a voter
4. The bureaucratization of the mind
5. Who should be the master?
VI. The Psychological Consequences of Bureaucratization
1. The German youth movement
2. The fate of a rising generation within a bureaucratic environment
3. Authoritarian guardianship and progress
4. The selection of the dictator
5. The vanishing of the critical sense
Is There Any Remedy Available?
1. Past failures
2. Economics versus planning and totalitarianism
3. The plain citizen versus the professional propagandist of bureaucratization
[HTML Version] || [PDF Version]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lzwt3mpv6L1r3qmkpo1_250.png)
