DECONSTRUCTING BABYLON #008 - DEFEATING THE COLONIAL GAZE - BREAKING THE CHAINS OF STATIC BUREAUCRACY🦎⚛️
Have you ever tried to start a small community project or apply for funding, only to be buried under a mountain of paperwork that feels designed to make you give up? It feels like the system is more interested in the "process" than the actual outcome. That isn’t just bad luck; it is Tool #5: The Static Bureaucracy and the Colonial Gaze.
Tool #5: The Static Bureaucracy and the Colonial Gaze.
In Research Report #224, we identify the colonial bureaucracy in Northland as a "Static Society." According to physicist David Deutsch, a Static Society is governed by taboo and the suppression of change, whereas a Dynamic Society is organised around the continuous creation of new knowledge and innovation.
The bureaucracy maintains control through two hidden mechanisms:
Risk Aversion: Innovation is treated as a threat. The "Universal Constructor" capacity of our whānau—our natural ability to solve problems—is dampened by a web of compliance and "past practice."
The Colonial Gaze: In quantum terms, the bureaucrat acts as a "Bad Observer." They look at Taitokerau and choose to see only "deprivation," "crime," and "truancy." Funding models are then built on this gaze, forcing iwi and community groups to perform "poverty porn" to qualify for aid.
This creates a perverse incentive: if a provider actually solves the problem, they lose their funding. This is Approved Entropy—a system that consumes energy (taxpayer money) to maintain disorder rather than creating a solution.
We move from a Static to a Dynamic Society by shifting the "Observer Effect." We stop reporting on "youth crime" and start reporting on "Rangatahi potential." We demand High-Trust Contracting based on "outcomes" rather than "outputs," trusting our community to find the right methods.
How to Counter it in Everyday Life
Change the Narrative: When you talk about your community or your kids, refuse to use the language of the "Colonial Gaze." Observe them into existence as Rangatira and leaders. Your observation literally helps collapse their reality toward abundance.
Measure with the Mauri Model: Don't let a bureaucrat tell you if your project is "efficient" in dollar terms. Use the Mauri Model scale (-2 to +2). If your mahi is restoring Mana (+2 Te Ahurea), it is a success, regardless of Babylonian spreadsheets.
Support "Flax-Roots" Innovation: Prioritise small, agile initiatives that are solving real problems in your street or marae. These are the "Universal Constructors" who are often crushed by the compliance trap.
Bureaucracy is the "dampener" on our indigenous genius. Today, I challenge you to act without waiting for "approval" from a system that benefits from your struggle. Observe the abundance already present in your whānau and act on it.
