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 {{br|The Unaccountability Machine: Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions - and How The World Lost Its Mind}} — {{author|Dan Davies}}, 2024.
-{{drop|T|he epic judicial}} processes of 2024 have been Tom Hayes’ appeal against [[LIBOR rigging]], about which we have had much to say [[LIBOR rigging part 2|elsewhere]], and the [[Post Office Horizon IT scandal]].
+==== Business administration is broken ====
+{{drop|T|he epic judicial}} processes of 2024 have been Tom Hayes’ appeal against [[LIBOR rigging]], about which we have had much to say [[LIBOR rigging part 2|elsewhere]], and the [[Post Office Horizon IT scandal]]. Both are resolving to the question: to what extent can we put this absolute shower down to the nefarious, or just bone-headed, interventions of [[Operator|individual operators]].
-Much of the engineering of corporate administration — you hardly need a doctorate in operations research to know there’s a lot of it — is there specifically to prevent [[bad apple]]s — or [[stupid apple]]s — subverting the system to ends for which it was not intended.
+Yet, much of the engineering of business administration — you hardly need an advanced degree in operations research to know these days, there’s a lot of it — exists specifically to prevent [[bad apple]]s, or [[stupid apple|''stupid'' apple]]s, subverting our complex modern organisations and systems.
-Much of the discourse about modern business administration is a catalogue of its singular failure to achieve that basic end. Our [[roll of honour]] at the [[disaster café]] refers.
+Much of modern business administration is a catalogue of a singular failure to achieve that basic end. Our [[roll of honour]] refers. LIBOR rigging and the sub-postmasters débâcle are but pinnacle examples. With all that infrastructure, superstructure and supervision how were a band of relatively lowly trading staff able to run riot?
-LIBOR rigging and the sub-postmasters débâcle are    pinnacle examples. With all that infrastructure, superstructure and supervision how were a band of relatively lowly trading staff able to run riot? ''Where were all the barking dogs?
+''Where were all the barking dogs? ''
-With all its infrastructure, internal and external legal advice, consultancy, and, er, second sight, how did ''no-one'' stop to think something must be wildly, catastrophically, wrong with the Post Office’s theory of the situation? Just applying [[Otto’s razor]]?
+With all its infrastructure, internal and external legal advice, consultancy, and, er, second sight, how did ''no-one'' stop to think something must be wildly, catastrophically, wrong with the [[Post Office Horizon IT scandal|Post Office]]’s theory of the situation? How did no-one, even once, applying [[Otto’s razor]]?
-Either we have localised problems — rogue gangs of bad apples — or the prevailing business administrative paradigm is in crisis and we need another theory of the game.
+==== About those rogue apples ====
+Either these are peculiar, localised problems — rogue gangs of [[Bad apple|bad apples]] — or the prevailing business administrative paradigm is in crisis and we need another theory of the game.
-“Rogue gangs of bad apples” is always the preferred diagnosis because it relieves executives of primary accountability for the system and leaves them only with the plausibly deniable responsibility for hiring the rogues in the first place.
+Because it relieves executives of accountability and leaves only a deniable residue of responsibility for hiring them in the first place, “bad apples” is always the preferred diagnosis. The paradigm being in crisis, by contrast, suggests senior executives take credit for all the good stuff, dodge the rap when things go tits up and live a charmed life never being honestly marked to measure for anything. They are a waste of money, in other words.
-That the paradigm might be in crisis suggests we are paying too much for an administrative regime that takes credit for all the good stuff and slips through your fingers when things go tits up. Who in the C-Suite wants to believe that?
+LIBOR submitters fit the “rogues gallery” identikit nicely. By making microscopic adjustments that no-one else would notice, they (allegedly) stood to make multimillion pound bonuses for themselves. It was almost a victimless crime.
-Tom Hayes and his buddies fit the “rogues gallery” identikit nicely. By microscopic adjustments that no-one else would notice, they stood to make multimillion pound bonuses for themselves. It was almost a victimless crime.
+The post office middle managers do not. If they had anything to gain personally from vilifying oppressing these pillars of the community nationwide, it was indirect and paled in comparison to the city bonuses on offer to the LIBOR submitters. These people do ''not'' resemble “bad apples”. They seem unremarkable, familiar, rather mediocre office workers.
-Susan Crichton, Rodric Williams, Jarnail Singh and Gareth Jenkins, and even pantomime villain Paula Vennells, less so. If they had anything to gain personally from systematically oppressing these pillars of the community nationwide, it was indirect, and paled in comparison to the city bonuses on offer to the LIBOR submitters.
+Watching these individuals give evidence, two things occur: firstly, the weave of life’s tapestry would not have had to be that different for these witnesses themselves to have been sub-postmasters, on the other end of this outrage. None more so than Paula Vennells, a middle-English lay Methodist, who even ''looks'' like a sub-postmaster.
-And watching these individuals give evidence, two things occur: firstly, that things would not have to have been wildly different in the life stories of these witnesses and any of them might themselves have been sub-postmasters, on the other end of this outrage. None more so than Paula Vennells, an middle-English lay methodist.
+Secondly — ''there but for the grace of God go I''. Post Office inhouse legal head Rodric Williams is a fifty-something expat New Zealander,
-Secondly — ''there but for the grace of God go I''. Rodric Williams is a fifty-something expat New Zealander qqq