The second chapter of Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Bureaucrat is Silenced Voice of the Bureaucrat. The second way of looking a a bureaucrat is to see a subtle mind that has been gagged, and who, if that code of silence were released may have something interesting to say. In this chapter I have essays on how speech codes or free speech restrictions impacted me and other public servants. I also write of my long oscillation between writing on governing and wanting to renounce political life. These essays stretch back to 2010, and include essays on Havel, Machiavelli, Leo Strauss and the Chinese and Japanese traditions of letting go of the political world.
There is a back story to these essays. In 2010 I was in one of many career slumps, after some turbulent years leading alcohol policy in Victoria. I thought I would turn to writing rather than bureuacracy to advocate the virtues that were important to me. I established a blog, The Happy Pessimist, which was a reference to the way Michel Foucault described himself. I wrote under a pseudonym, and on the whole did not write directly about my experiences in Victoria. Few read it but I feared just one vengeful senior leader could destroy me if they chanced upon it. Public servants were being sacked for Facebook posts. The High Court decided not to protect them. Ultimately, I took the blog down in 2014 because of that fear. If I had not overcome this fear, this book would never have appeared.
Today there is a lot of public commentary in Australia about public servants, offering frank and fearless advice, following the Robodebt Royal Commission. Yet there is an awful lot of febrile public shaming and scapegoating of individual public servants. This shaming will silence more voices like mind, and will stifle authentic and independent advice. We would do well to pause and listen to the silenced voice of the bureaucrats.
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