Government has share of absurdity

I do not subscribe to the theory that the greatest oxymoronic phrase in existence is “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”

In my history of covering governments as a journalist and observing them as a communications specialist — OK, PR guy — for a major electric utility, whose business health depends on legislation and regulation, I have dealt with many dedicated public servants in government in positions of responsibility.

They take pride in their positions, as well as in their professionalism. They are why governments accomplish the good things that they do.

Government officials, like most people in large organizations, cause more than their share of absurdity, too. Often that absurdity arises out of bureaucracy.

Sometimes bureaucratic absurdity arises out of “groupthink,” which occurs when a group of people agree to something because they think that’s what everybody else wants, when often nobody really wants it. It was just the first idea someone expressed.

Sometimes bureaucratic absurdity arises out of trying to please a higher-up. And sometimes the higher-ups commit absurdity because they can’t back down on a bad decision or admit that subordinates can come up with better ideas.

Here are some government absurdities I have noticed:

• Public radio and TV stations have to air a list of their broadcast towers and their locations at least twice a day, and in jargon that only a bureaucrat can love. I bet even the genius who ordered these announcements never listens to or watches them.

• Why does leaving one district of the New Mexico Department of Transportation and entering another warrant large green signs on New Mexico interstate highways? I don’t think a single non-DOT driver has ever thought, “I’m sure glad I’m in District 4. What a relief after District 3!”

• And who came up with the highway signs that say “gusty winds may exist” or “dust storms may exist?” There is an extremely high likelihood that gusty winds and dust storms exist, somewhere. Even now, there are probably some hefty gusts on Mount Everest, and a haboob, a dust storm, going on in the Sahara Desert. Do we need signs in New Mexico to remind us, though? The signs should read something like “Watch for gusty winds” or “dust storm area.” The state would save on sign lettering, too.

• My favorite government absurdity, however, is California’s Proposition 65 warning. It appears on labels and packaging for a very wide variety of products and warns that the product contains materials “known to the state of California” to cause cancer or reproductive harm.

The alleged harm may be suspected by some and categorically denied by others, but the state of California, in its infinite wisdom, declares without doubt that this stuff causes cancer or reproductive harm.

Does this mean that it’s dangerous only in California, but not in, say Pennsylvania or South Dakota?

Why is only California so darn toxic?

It doesn’t make sense.

Steve Hansen writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

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