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About this quote

What does it mean?
Authorities delay executions to appear impersonal, like natural forces.
In plain terms
Bureaucracy mimics nature to seem detached and inevitable.
What can you take from it?
Systems use delay to mask human agency.

Where it applies

  • governance
  • critiquing systems
  • historical analysis

Putting it to work

  • question authority
  • analyze procedures
  • resist systems

Questions to consider

  • Is state violence ever truly impersonal?
  • Does delay change justice?

Another view

This view may overstate the detachment of officials.

More from Jorge Luis Borges

  1. 'Maybe this crime belongs to the history of Jewish superstitions,' murmmured Lonnrot. 'Like Christianity,' the editor put in.

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  2. Like every writer, he measured the virtues of other writers by their performance, and asked that they measure him by what he conjectured or planned.

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  3. 'It's possible, but not interesting,' Lonnrot answered. 'You will reply that reality hasn't the slightest need to be of interest. And I'll answer you that real…

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