BACK TO OUR STORY - CONT'D
Abroad
She was out of ID and out of luck. Frustrated and fed-up she returned to her foreign country. But there was a problem. Although she did not get her ID document, the paperwork did indicate that she now lived in Buenos Aires. And this was a problem.
According to Argentine law, all people must at all times have their address officially registered by the government whether they live in Argentina or not. Not to worry, said the consulate. Just come over with your documents, fill the paperwork, pay the fee and you we will change your address. Everything is going to be OK.
Of course, it wasn't. Since she was lacking her latest ID with her Argentine address, the Consulate was unable to process her change of address unless she presented her birth certificate! That's right. This is as stupid as it sounds. Furthermore, this was and continue to be an international requirement for Argentinian citizens. It is not a local Consulate problem. Now consider this. She has two choices:
- Go back to Agrentina spending ridiculous amounts of time and money in order to get a stupid document which has no bearing whatsoever on where she lives (her documentation is actually current, including her Argentine passport)
- She could ask for the Consulate to request her birth certificate from Argentina which will take approximately about 6 months (with luck) and cost a small fortune.
Failure to do so means being in breach of the registration law, the voting law (don't forget that voting is mandatory and for Argentine residents must be done in Argentina) and subject to investigation by the DGI (Direccion General Impositiva) or the General Income Direction (aka the tax people).
Of course, she told them to stuff-in and simply ran away. From now on she will never, ever use any Argentine document under any circumstances. Period. Problem solved.
BACK TO THE PAST
This is most certainly a tiny horror story as bureaucratic horror stories go. But there are several lessons in it. The first is that no matter how small or trivial the issue, government bureaucracies are always there. There is no data small enough to be overlooked. For example, in order to have her address changed, she had to specify her highest education level, degree and profession. She had to supply a reference in Argentina!!!??? She had to supply a reference in her country of residence and supply her passport number. Why? What had any of these pieces of information to do with a simple change of address. Answer? Nothing whatsoever.
Why was there a requirement to present a Birth Certificate for a simple change in address? Why would a government organization such as the ReNaPer (the body in charge of issuing IDs) had such a retarded requirement? Moreover considering that she had a valid Argentine passport with her fully certifying who she was. Answer? No reason. Some idiotic apparatchik so decided and therefore it became "law".
Why was no way to create a duplicate of the magic receipt in Buenos Aires? Because so stupid apparatchik so decided, probably for "security reasons" or something along these lines.
Why did the system crashed in Buenos Aires? Because it was developed by some incompetent apparatchik on tax money. In actuality she was assured that such crashes were actually very common.
Why was there no process to solve this eventuality? Because no apparatchik cares and it is not their job to care. Their job is to fulfill some idiotic purpose that some other apparatchik higher up decided in order to fulfil some vague political decision somewhere higher up.
Why was all this necessary? Why is that the Argentine government must know at all times who you are and where do you come from? Why must you vote whether you want it or not? Why must you pay taxes, for that matter; even more knowing what kind of hopeless economic basket case Argentine is?
THE REASONS - MORE LESSONS
Why indeed?
Because it all goes back to the need of the military which, following German doctrine in 1911 decided that they needed cannon fodder to fulfill their job security needs. Because back in 1911 a politician decided that the "popular vote" was the only way to keep his party in power and hence to keep himself in power. It is always the same story. Some apparatchik (military or civilian) or politician decide that they need to increase their job security levels thus they decree this or that and from that moment on, we have to live with the consequences.
One of the lessons here is that most (we would say all) bureaucratic requirements can be traced back to some sort of incredibly stupid and selfish decision which, in the best tradition of all bureaucracies, can never be shut down but must forever be increased and enhanced.
Another lesson is that we must also learn to be opportunists and shop countries. If country A is incredibly stupid then we must seriously consider the possibility to move to country B. If B is still too stupid, consider C and so on until you find the one country which you can live in sufficient peace as to be tolerable. No, you won't find any decent countries any longer; they are all circling the socialistic drain. The best you can hope for is one with the lowest number of restrictions. Not an easy choice, but is the only one we have left. If our countries won't have us then we won't have them. Vote with your feet, not with your vote. Walk away and don't ever look back. Let them rot in their own stupidity. Believe it or not, you are doing them a favour. The faster the whole economic situation implodes, the faster they will evolve politically. Yes. We are deadly serious in this. There is no other way.
The last lesson is that you can never play by bureaucratic rules and win. The best you can hope is for a tie. And even this one is incredibly difficult to achieve. The game is rigged against you and when this happens the only way to win is not to play. Always play by your rules, never by theirs. Improvise, overcome and adapt. They are bound by stupid laws and regulations, you are not. In so doing you will be leading although leading is not the objective, living free is.
CONCLUSION
This little (we would say tiny) bureaucratic horror story was intended to highlight the reasons why there can never possibly be a truce with bureaucrats. We are in this war until the last bureaucrat standing, because they have no chance against the primary trends of history. We may not be soldiers in this war, but in a sense we are. We are here to battle for your mind. We are here to expose you to the realities of modern democracies and point out that they do not work. We are prisoners and they are the enemy. The only difference is that we cannot tunnel or jump over electrified fences because there is no "out there" since Your Country Is Your Prison Cell. The only way in which we will be freed is by helping history to educate all inmates into revolt. We are not the leaders. We are not the educators. History is. They are. Themselves. But we can help and we will.
This is our point of view and yours may differ. You may believe that cooperating with bureaucracies is your duty and that they are there to help you. That's allright. That's your right. We are only pointing out that they have never done so and that they are not about to begin now. How much of this dissonance can you tolerate is up to you. We will be here in waiting. Step over whenever you like. It's free… and we mean truly free.
Note: please see the Glossary if you are unfamiliar with certain words.
