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

Life without bureaucracy is wonderful… Or is it? Why do we crave all kinds of rules and restrictions? How did our lives turn into an endless process of filling out forms? Anthropologist David Graeber, one of the most outstanding and provocative contemporary thinkers, answers these and many other questions. You’ll get the unmasking of the hidden meaning behind stories about Sherlock Holmes and Batman, a discussion of social theories in the best traditions of Marx and Foucault, and a journey to the origins of the creation of bureaucracy. Witty but never mocking, Graeber reminds us how exactly all of us are responsible for the system we’ve gotten used to hating. Bureaucracy hasn’t disappeared anywhere—we’ve simply mastered the art of ignoring it.