From: Ivan Van Laningham [mailto:
ivanlan@pauahtun.org] Juri Nummelin wrote:
> Bill C:
> > My idea is that American readers tend to like
the idea that
> > a single individual can often succeed where the
bureacuracy
> > (as represented in detective stories by the
police) can't.
> > Maybe that's where I go "wrong". As a European
(and even more as a
> North-European) I tend to think that bureacracy -
i.e. police and other
> authorities - are the ones who should be called to
help, not some
> individual.
As an American, I tend to think this is the funniest thing
anyone's said on this list in weeks.
--The fantasy of many here in the US is that private
bureaucracy is somehow nobler or more efficient than a
"public" one. Despite all evidence that the Iron Laws (kudos
to Alexis Gilliland and his colleagues in tracing them)
persist in all human affairs. And the fantasy, as Bill notes,
that One Clean Stroke by someone who does what's needed is
usually an effective solution, as opposed to usually the
advent of yet more problems in need of solution. Again, a
constant in human affairs. TM
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