I'm still waiting.

Without functionaries, we wouldn't have bureaucracies. They're the ordinary people that run the bureaucracies. Often, hired nitwits. They're told what to do, and they do it. In Hitler's Germany, they were the paper-pushers. That documented whom was supposed to go to the concentration camps. Every country has its characteristic bueaucracy. In modern-day Germany, it's efficiency that rules the roost. Everybody that comes for service must do everything in precise order. Efficiently. Cross every 't' and dot every 'i'. In Italy, one must learn to put off. What can be done tomorrow or next week or next month gets automatically postponed. One must return to the bueaucracy multiple times to get things done. In America, it's often a pass-the-buck bureaucracy. You gotta go from one functionary to another and another and another. And often, one doesn't even get to talk to a real live being. They try to answer your questions by remote control. Then if something goes awry, it can be blamed on a machine. A robot. Often, the robots have first names. The last one I talked to was Shantelle. I asked to talk to her supervisor. That was several weeks ago. I'm still waiting. --Jim Broede