Never underestimate the power of administration
Minh Tan (see haiquote version)
By administration, I mean any sort of process where there is “paperwork” involved, whether it’s on paper or digital. This involves business, legal, government, among other processes. It’s a sort of affirmation of the pen is mightier than the sword philosophy, except there need not be any sword comparisons here. It could be a matter of delay to wait you out, ridiculous hoops to jump through to increase costs for you (like lawyer fees for motions), or waste your time and effort so as to not make it worth your while. It can affect the individual or the entirety of society. I’ve seen and heard of so many ridiculous administrative requirements that it often infuriates me that certain things are allowed to persist when it’s obvious games are being played. For anybody who has ever underplayed administrative rules and roles as being trivial, they just wait till they really hit an administrative challenge to something important to them that they can’t get their way for. Then we’ll see what they think of the power of administration!