The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy

Where Does The Desire For Endless Rules, Regulations, And Bureaucracy Come From? How Did We Come To Spend So Much Of Our Time Filling Out Forms? And Is It Really A Cipher For State Violence? To Answer These Questions, Anthropologist David Graeber ... Traces The Peculiar And Unexpected Ways We Relate To Bureaucracy Today, And Reveals How It Shapes Our Lives In Ways We May Not Even Notice--jacket. Introduction : The Iron Law Of Liberalism And The Era Of Total Bureaucratization -- Dead Zones Of The Imagination : An Essay On Structural Stupidity -- Of Flying Cars And The Declining Rate Of Profit -- The Utopia Of Rules, Or Why We Really Love Bureaucracy After All -- Appendix. On Batman And The Problem Of Constituent Power. David Graeber. Some Chapters Previously Published In Various Sources In 2012. Includes Bibliographical References.