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January 22, 2013

The Two Washingtons of Washington D.C.

One is the Washington of the professional government technocracy; the imperial Washington of ceremony and ritual,

where massive numbers of staffers and bureaucrats pack in to attend to the great grid of the nation. The other Washington is no different than Chicago or Detroit, except that its only dying industry is the great machine of government. These same two visions haunt the modern urban center and its shaky coalition between the government worker and the government welfare case. Here the white collar professional can reach the peak of his career while embedded deep in the bureaucratic trenches of the war on poverty in a city where poverty is an abiding reality. Here men and women can have full time careers pretending to solve the unsolvable problems of a nation. -- Sultan Knish: The Great Power of Washington

Posted by gerardvanderleun at January 22, 2013 10:01 AM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.

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