Molasses heralds authoritarianism

We need to term for things that slow government to a crawl. Corruption it's not a good enough term because not everything is driven by corruption. There really are stakeholders and lawsuits and EA impact studies, and so forth that have to be resolved. Different countries have different kinds of proceduralisms, different reasons, whatever. Let's just throw it all into one basket and call it bureaucratic molasses. 

Sometimes it pays to be very specific. We are going to zoom out a little bit and talk about all the molasses in government projects.

Molasses always has the flavor of the sacred. When you ask people why there's so much molasses inhibiting the construction of a new highway, a new High-Speed rail, turnpike, new housing, new ports, new refineries, new pipelines, and so forth they will give you very good valid reasons why it can't be done, or shouldn't be done. There is always a sacred injunction for why it can't be done. That's one of the characteristics of molasses. Either someone has to get paid off or some sacred totem is being violated. Rome can't dig that new subway because of ancient artifacts. California can't build that new High-Speed rail because Constitutional procedures must be followed, or the bones of Native Americans must be respected, we have to do our fifth environmental impact statement, or whatever. There's always a sacred reason why it can't be done. Molasses is the sacred and corrupt conspiring together to inhibit action. Molasses says: but you didn't consult the stakeholders! What about the property owners? What about the migratory birds? What about the prairie dogs?

Molasses causes authoritarianism. Now most people who love molasses will get offended by this. They will say that following procedures is how you prevent authoritarianism. But that's exactly backwards. Efficient proceduralism is how you prevent authoritarianism, not proceduralism itself. When the administrative state can move rapidly and build things despite having to check off all the boxes then you've got a recipe that works. When the administrative state can't do anything fast you've now got a moral justification for tyranny. Molasses gives moral justification to authoritarian government. The very people saying "Trump didn't follow procedure!" are the reason he got away with not following procedure. They are completely tone deaf because what people here is "I like to obstruct getting things done in order to keep myself employed." The other day I actually saw a video where some bureaucrat said that "Trump was moving too fast." Like that was the objection. Not what he was doing, but that he was doing it too quickly.

It's difficult to underestimate the blow to moral legitimacy the California High-Speed rail fiasco has done to the administrative state. It's quite possible that that fiasco all by itself added the one or two points needed to push Trump over the finish line back in 2016. This is not an exaggeration or a joke. When the bureaucracy is no longer capable of getting things done it is handing a moral justification for authoritarianism to the right. When sacred words are used to defend incompetence then moral justification is given to support the profane. If constitutional, bureaucratic, procedural government cannot get things done then unconstitutional authoritarian government will. When you say "we can't do it because of some sacred reason," you might as well say "go ahead and shoot all of us bureaucrats." Civil servants need to understand that things are going to happen no matter what, and molasses only justifies your oppression by authority. Every extra day you add to the high-speed rail fiasco is an extra foot of wall you will be lined up in front of. Molasses causes the inexorable movement of society towards authoritarianism and what's worse is that authoritarianism doesn't generally eliminate molasses, since while it can destroy the sacred half of the problem it won't eliminate the corruption.

Efficient proceduralism is the only way forward. Reform or die.