STORY OF THE DAY: KAFKAESQUE ENCOUNTER WITH BUREAUCRACY

Source

Franz Kafka: Pictures of a Life by Klaus Wagenbach (1984), p. 209; sourced to Klaus Wagenbach Archiv, Berlin

https://kafkamuseum.cz/en/photogallery/

AuthorUnknown author

This work is in the public domain 

Via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS 

KAFKAESQUE ENCOUNTER WITH BUREAUCRACY 

I recently had the privilege of being dragged through the grand labyrinth of bureaucracy — a majestic structure where reason takes a holiday, logic goes into exile, and ordinary mortals like you and me are reduced to supplicants before clerks armed with rubber stamps.

For thirty days, I was tossed about like a file without a cover, waiting for some “competent authority” to decide whether I had the right to exist. The questions were profound, almost philosophical. For instance:

Does an eight-legged spider really have eight legs? Or should this be certified by an officer in triplicate?

Can you prove that you are yourself? Not just with an ID card, but with two witnesses, a sworn affidavit, and possibly your great-grandmother’s horoscope?

Is today really today, or must you obtain a letter to confirm it from yesterday?

Each time I thought the ordeal had ended, a new requirement emerged like a hydra’s head. A missing comma here, a wrong-colored ink there, a form submitted in blue when it should have been black. One clerk even whispered to me confidentially: “It’s not the documents that matter, sir, it’s the documents about the documents.”

At last, by divine intervention (and perhaps because the spider grew tired of having its legs counted), the file was released from its dusty purgatory. I emerged blinking into the sunlight, like a prisoner set free — not sure whether to laugh, cry, or request a fresh certificate confirming my release.

Bureaucracy is truly democratic: it makes everyone feel equally small, equally helpless, equally absurd. As Kafka might have said, “It’s not about solving your problem; it’s about proving endlessly that you have one.”

Grateful thanks to ChatGPT for its kind help and support in creating this blogpost.