Procedural systems whose logic is internally consistent, individually unopposable, and collectively absurd.
Kafka's Trial, published 1925. The distinguishing feature is that no individual step is unreasonable and no individual actor is malicious, which is why the situation cannot be appealed to anyone.
In practice
- A benefits claim rejected for missing evidence that can only be obtained by an office that requires the benefit to be in payment.
- An organisation where every department's process is defensible and the applicant must satisfy all six, in an order none of them specifies.
- Standing
- Pairs with Heller's Catch-22 and Crozier's vicious circle.
- Subject
- Organizations & Bureaucracy
- Essay
- The folklore of office life