Government proposes, bureaucracy disposes. And the bureaucracy must dispose of government proposals by dumping them on us.
P. J. O'RourkeRead
The three branches of government number considerably more than three and are not, in any sense, 'branches' since that would imply that there is something they are all attached to besides self-aggrandizement and our pocketbooks. ... Government is not a machine with parts; it's an organism. When does an intestine quit being an intestine and start becoming an asshole?
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote critiques the government's structure and functioning, suggesting that it's more complex than simply having three branches.
P. J. O'Rourke's quote uses vivid imagery to highlight the flaws in the conventional understanding of government as divided into three branches. He argues that instead of a well-functioning machine, the government acts more like an organism driven by self-interest and monetary gain, leading to questions about the essence of governmental roles and responsibilities.
Themes
GovernmentPoliticsCorruptionSelf-InterestAuthority
In practice
Example use cases
During a debate on government reform, I could use this quote to emphasize the need for accountability.
More from P. J. O'Rourke
All quotes →Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
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Predicting innovation is something of a self-canceling exercise: the most probable innovations are probably the least innovative.
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I spend my days kneeling in the muck of language, feeling around for gooey verbs, nouns, and modifiers that I can squash together to make a blob of a sentence that bears some likeness to reason and sense.
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Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine.
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The idea of a news broadcast once was to find someone with information and broadcast it. The idea now is to find someone with ignorance and spread it around.
P. J. O'RourkeRead
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