There are some rather ridiculous bureaucratic rituals out there that seem to be employed or enforced for no practical reasons at all, other than to impose arbitrary authority. One old example was that the French government for its accounting continued to use Roman numerals for some one hundred years after England wisely gave up on them. Some bureaucrats are less bureaucratic than others. And then there is the utter nonsense about changing the clocks from Daylight Savings Time to Standard Time. The former was introduced by authoritarian Germany in 1916 on the notion that it would reduce citizen hardships due to WW I.
In free countries it was reimposed during WW II, and as this writer recalls it would help the farmers get the crops harvested.
Now it is done simply to impose authority. A useless but intrusive ritual.
This essay is about reforming bureaucratic nonsense, as it is suffered in various forms
This essay is about reforming bureaucratic nonsense, as it is suffered in various forms. With some key examples last.
And then there are rules about grammar such as not ending a sentence with a preposition. Who cares? But those making the rules do. But at one time and it is still effective is the “double negative” as in “There ain’t no way I’m going to do what you are ordering me to do”. Why condemn the style if the meaning is clear?
Other than to be urbanely snooty.
The double negative is much more effective than our now disgusting ruling classes who have adopted the “F-Bomb” as a means of adding emphasis to their utterances. Decades ago, it was shunned by polite society. Instead, it was the privilege of loggers, miners as well as factory and construction workers where it represented a way of life.
Anyone I ever worked with in the bush would agree with -- “Abso-f$$$ing-lutely!”.
And then there has been the North American habit of saying that one lives “on” a street. Indeed, one lives in a country, in a state, in a town and in a neighborhood. You don’t live “on” a country or “on” a street.
That people actually live in or on the central cores of Democrat cities is uncertain.
But the main purpose of this essay is the utter nonsense of not capitalizing the four seasons of the year.
They are important. Like the weather everybody lives and talks about the seasons.
Not capitalizing the seasons of the year
And the oversight is everyone when referring to the seasons of the year will not capitalize the first letter. Even the unfairly scorned Mondays are capitalized.
One of the most refreshing seasons is the Spring. But written as “spring” one might just as well be talking about spring rates for old sports cars. Which can be a fascinating subject, but not for every interest.
In checking the style book for the still haughty New York Times, the convention about the season that follows late September is written as the fall. One might just as well be going on about the sometimes-dreadful consequences of gravity. Regrettably, the seasons are not capitalized. Probably because someone with arbitrary authority deemed that the seasons did not merit distinction.
But they do!
Even at its harshest Winter deserves distinction. And it is time to change an absurd convention, hitherto practiced on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
This could begin this Fall when the public in having had enough of arbitrarily being forced to change clocks twice a year will finally be relieved of a ridiculous bureaucratic “double” ritual.
With hopefully another reform being accomplished in time for the next available Spring.
Bob Hoye (BobHoye.com) has been researching investments for decades, which eventually included the history of financial and political markets. He considers now to be the most fascinating time for both since the Great Reformation of the 1600s. Bob casts a caustic eye on all promotions and, having a degree in geophysics, is severely critical of the audacity that a committee can “manage” not just the economy, but also the temperature of the nearest planet. He has had articles published in major financial journals and, as a speaker, has amused assemblies in a number of cities, from London to Zurich to Tokyo.
