What’s happening to Schiavo suggests that Americans have finally been taught to think like bureaucrats. Bureaucrats cover their flanks with e-mail and send copies to others to establish positions. They almost say what a thing is, but not outright, not exactly. The bureaucrat embraces the neutral and avoids conflict.

And we’ve allowed this. We’ve embraced the values of the bureaucrat, of the manager, and replaced those older, iconic Western values of self-reliance, accepting responsibility and meeting things head on. One of these values–albeit ignored through countless wars and cruelties–is that human life is sacred. But now we are about process. Now we are about avoiding consequence. We’re about keeping our hands clean, and we use words to scrub them.

Couldn’t have said it better myself. Go read the whole thing…

Source: Chicago Tribune via Spoons

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