![]() To get a sense of just how “timeless”-according to the CIA itself-such instructions remain, see the abridged list below, courtesy of Business Insider. You can read and download the full document here. The citizen-saboteur “frequently needs pressure, stimulation or assurance, and information and suggestions regarding feasible methods of simple sabotage.” ![]() But the Field Manual asserts that “purposeful stupidity is contrary to human nature” and requires a particular set of skills. Genuine laziness, arrogance, and mindlessness may surely be endemic. Such people, writes Rebecca Onion at Slate, “might already be sabotaging materials, machinery, or operations of their own initiative,” but may have lacked the devious talent for sowing chaos that only an intelligence agency can properly master. Now declassified and freely available on the Department of Homeland Security’s website, the manual the agency describes as “surprisingly relevant” was once distributed to OSS officers abroad to assist them in training “citizen-saboteurs” in occupied countries like Norway and France. The ridiculous inner workings of most organizations certainly make a lot more sense when viewed in the light of one set of instructions for “purposeful stupidity,” namely the once top-secret Simple Sabotage Field Manual, written in 1944 by the CIA’s precursor, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). But in addition to human failings, there’s another possible reason for bureaucratic disorder the conspiracy-minded among us may be forgiven for assuming that in many cases, institutional incompetence is the result of deliberate sabotage from both above and below. The Harvard Business Review summed up disturbing recent research confirming and supplementing Peter’s insights into the narcissism, overconfidence, or actual sociopathy of many a government and business leader. Peter’s 1969 satire The Peter Principle-which offers the theory that managers and executives get promoted to the level of their incompetence-then, David Brent-like, go on to ruin their respective departments. Why do multi-million and billion dollar agencies seem unable, or unwilling, to accomplish the simplest of tasks? Why do so many of us spend our lives in the real-life bureaucratic nightmares satirized in the The Office and Office Space? ![]() Even if you haven’t read The Castle, if you work for such an entity-or like all of us have regular dealings with the IRS, the healthcare and banking system, etc.-you’re well aware of the devilish incompetence that masquerades as due diligence and ties us all in knots. I’ve always admired people who can successfully navigate what I refer to as “Kafka’s Castle,” a term of dread for the many government and corporate agencies that have an inordinate amount of power over our permanent records, and that seem as inscrutable and chillingly absurd as the labyrinth the character K navigates in Kafka’s last allegorical novel. ![]()
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