Adiaphorizing Effect

The word comes from a Greek root meaning "not different" — morally indifferent. The effect is this: a system can make a harmful act feel like mere paperwork, so that no one involved feels they have done anything at all.

Here is how it happens, from the ground up. Break one harmful deed into a hundred small steps. Give each step to a different person. Give every step a neutral name — a form, a signature, a procedure. Now nobody pushed anyone. There were only stamps.

Bureaucracies know this instinctively. "I just process the application" is the most dangerous sentence in the world, multiplied by ten thousand desks.

The antidote is a face. Before you sign, process, or approve, ask one question: if I had to do this to one person, standing in front of me, watching my hands — would I still do it? The procedure is never responsible. You are.