Back in 1957, C. Northcote Parkinson (Parkinson鈥檚 law) wrote, 鈥淲ork expands to fill the time available for its completion.鈥�
Likewise, the number of managers grows much faster than the number of workers. He noted that the number of admirals in the royal navy increased geometrically, especially between wars, with fewer ships, fewer sailors, but more admirals.
Even before that we were advised, 鈥淪tick close to your desks and never go to sea, and you all may be rulers of the Queen鈥檚 Navee!鈥� (鈥淗.M.S. Pinafore,鈥� Gilbert and Sullivan 1878).
Last month, the self-titled secretary of war convened 800 flag-grade officers 鈥� admirals and generals 鈥� at one location at one time. It鈥檚 a good thing no terrorist organization found out in advance, because they could鈥檝e decimated the leadership of our Defense Department. Now the secretary is doing it for them.
A terrorist attack would kill randomly, but the secretary鈥檚 action, if he follows his commander鈥檚 tactics, is to eliminate those not loyal to the regime so that they can be replaced with sycophants 鈥� as Maduro did in Venezuela.
The officers behaved as we expected of them. They remained apolitical, they did not cheer or jeer, praise or insult or express any opinions at that time. The record of decisions they made in their career can reveal their commitment to fairness, national security, loyalty, party, membership, church membership, social connections and business connections. That history can be analyzed to determine where their actual loyalty will fall relative to political events where they may be called upon to intervene.
Maduro created a close relationship with the senior officers in the Venezuelan army; they enabled him to hang onto power illegally after losing the election.
It is possible that some officers were promoted to a higher rank, salary and corner office with nothing to do, to get them out of the way. That makes it possible for younger ones to fill their places.
This corollary parallels 鈥淭he Peter Principal鈥� (J. Peter, 1974): 鈥淓mployees rise to their level of incompetence.鈥� The problem is, if you do this too hurriedly or too often, those who get promoted to fill the ranks will be grossly inexperienced. The new openings at the lower level will again be filled by those with inadequate qualifications and so on all the way to the bottom. Then what, conscription?
The military has had staffing problems as long as there鈥檚 been a military. In times of great stress, governments resort to conscription to fill the ranks, without much concern about competence. Now the secretary is terminating competent personnel because their lifestyle is not consistent with the image he feels optimizes their allegiance. His own past image is not what we expect of a statesman. Some of our cherished statesmen also had (or have) bad habits, but those were kept out of sight.
The gathering of top leadership in one place creates an excellent target for a potential enemy. Next year, this target will convene at an even higher level 鈥� those who are in position to tell the generals what to do.
They will all be gathered in the House chamber of the U.S. Capital for three hours. As a security measure, a token few members of each major department will refrain from attending so that if the worst imaginable should occur (鈥淢ars Attacks,鈥� 1996 movie) there would be a skeleton government to try to hold things together.
The State of the Union address, which has about the same number of attendees as the officers鈥� enclave, has lost all its dignity. The flag-grade officers were well-behaved. The attendees of recent State of the Union addresses have turned it into a circus. Every other statement by the president invokes applause from one side of the aisle or heckling from the other. There are irrelevant awards presented with pointless theater. The address takes three times as long as it should.
If we鈥檙e really concerned about national security, the audience should be dispersed. With modern communications, the majority of the audience does not need to be in the same room. In fact, the country would be safer if they were positioned elsewhere and fewer interruptions would occur.
There might be time to make things perfectly clear.
Ken Obenski is a forensic engineer and safety and freedom advocate in South Kona. He writes a biweekly column for 91直播. Feedback is encouraged at obenskik@gmail.com.