BARNEY"S LAW OF INSTITUTIONALITY

This guy Murphy doesn’t have a thing on me!  I too, have a law.  I call it Barney’s Law of Institutionality.  It is, that all institutions dedicated to public service sooner or later become separate entities unto themselves and will start to perpetuate their own image,  thereby forgetting the intended purpose for their existence. 

In all of these institutions there is an absence of norms and standards of productivity.  The work ethic then becomes lethargic compared to the hustle and bustle of the private industrial standard.  The entire staff of these institutions ultimately will join together in a self-serving conspiracy simply because they lack an authoritative force that would compel them to do otherwise.

The legislative branch of our federal government is a classic example of Barney’s Law.  The two bodies, the Senate and the House of Representatives have promoted this self-serving into an art form.  Legislation always takes a back seat to the collective procedural conduct of the individual institutional body.  Power is accumulated by seniority, thus necessitating continuous campaigning for reelection which becomes paramount, not to mention the pensions and other perks to line their own pockets.  The staff of each individual member has skyrocketed to unbelievable numbers and the cost to astronomical proportions.  Just being a Senator or Congressman takes up at least ninety percent of each member’s time.  The rest of the time is spent on actual legislative work and that percentage is diminishing.

Our institutions of higher learning are in a class by themselves!  When I think of our colleges and universities funded by the taxpayer I get a mental picture of a man attired in a casual manner and wearing rimmed glasses.  He is smoking a straight stemmed pipe and has a smug look on his face.  This is the new professor and he has reached college heaven – tenure!  All of these institutions have this thing called tenure.  It actually means, in simple terms, permanence of position.  Faculty members, one and all, seek to reach college heaven.  To get there it is necessary to get something published; it really doesn’t matter what it is as long as it is published.  The more they can get published the greater their chances of getting to college heaven! 

Before tenure the teachers and professors spend as little time as possible actually teaching, the intended purpose, and most of their time is spent writing trash or anything they can get published somewhere.  After tenure, they reduce their actual teaching load to less than six hours per week!  This is the actual national average.  They are tenured and unlike the senators and congressmen, they do not have to run for reelection.  What a life!

Now for our justice system – those who render justice and punishment for the evil deeds perpetrated upon our fellowman.  This is an institution that sooner rather than later fell under Barney’s Law of Institutionality!  The ink was not even dry on the first law that was ever enacted when the legal beagles stole the whole show.  By precedent, the law

reigns supreme, meaning that procedures and technicalities take precedent over justice.  They seek one hundred percent perfection in the procedural matters of their own making, then fall short of their intended purpose for which they exist!  What a mess!

The purpose of the religious institutions of this world is to minister to the spiritual needs of the people. The greatest ministry the world has ever seen did not have a glass cathedral!  It was carried out by one man, with a few followers, plodding through the hot and  barren lands to minister to the people.  Need I say more?

Just think, by a small stretch of the imagination one could apply Barney’s Law to oneself!