Thank you.

At first I didn't agree with the "horrific, Cthulhian reality", but I think that's one of the Orwellian problems.

Bureaucracy's are infuriating and frustrating and horrific, but they are the way they are for reasons, like gravity. If you're willing to stare into the abyss, it's not hard at all to see why things are the way they are. An institution is a machine, indifferent to our wants and intentions. Make the machine wrong, and it will be a meat grinder for everyone involved.

But's there's the other, more human Orwellian horror. People really are different in the head, running different algorithms. Or more to the point, they aren't aliens, I am. That manager's meeting was a peek behind the curtain to true and habitual Doublethink. In their heads, the epistemic truth algorithm was completely inoperative. The Lie was completely True until I opened my yap. People can be frustrating and infuriating - but they too are what they are for reasons, like gravity, and they're not mysterious at all if you stare into their abyss.

The Hitch had a catchy phrase - "just two chromosomes away from a chimpanzee". We aren't so smart, rational, or sane. All sorts of "mysteries" dissolve in the light of that.