I'm increasingly frustrated to note that with almost everything that's to be done these days someone has built a system around the process. I'm not against systems per se, being as they are, the mark of civilisation. Organised structures are required for the proper dissemination of goods and services.

My broader issue is with good systems versus bad ones. Bad ones can be destructive. They depersonalise to such an extent as to betray the idea behind their initial purpose. Customer service as offered by large corporations would be one such example. Good systems by contrast take into consideration, to as high a degree as possible without becoming impractical, the complexity in human nature and the need for individuals to be treated with respect.

The current plethora of systems, many displaying a lack of interest in individuality, is a matter of concern. I picture hoards of over-educated nerds, semi-autistic, probably males, locked away in hidden institutions devising ever more alienating systems and as they go diminishing the importance of individual interests and relationship value in the business world and, with that, ultimately the wider society. They do this in favour of hyper-rational practicalities in service to money-making and profits.

When this is only about banks forcing people to deal with call centres, or utility companies with automated talking machines as the front line to customers, it may be annoying but the effects are still relatively benign. But life is never that simple. The prevalence of such de-humanising systems more and more on a daily basis begins to seep into the value structure and the collective psyche. Things that would have been unacceptable in the past gradually find their way into common occurrence and exchange. Soon there is less and less difference between the person and the machine. In fact machines and people who behave like them as in call centres are actually better. De-personalisation as a mode, people as instruments and not ends, becomes acceptable fare. The slope is then slippery, ripe for subversion by power-hungry business leaders and, more dangerously, bad politicians. History has no shortage of those types and the damage they do.

You would think the lesson had been learned for avoidance of such pitfalls but I doubt it has. It probably has to be learned over and over till it sinks into the thick skull of humanity and an unshift-able benchmark is finally in place. That point hasn't been reached, so relatively subtle but insidious developments such as the employment of de-humanising technology are able to invade the daily experience of doing ordinary business. These developments are more dangerous than they may appear and should be watched closely and subject to the severest scrutiny.