August 7, 2007
by Clay Barham

Ripple and Ripley Effects are inverse syndromes found mostly in mature organizations and government bureaus. It is an inverse relationship associated mostly with government.  The inverse relationship changes with the increasing size of government.  The ripple effect decreases as the Ripley effect increases.  Everyone knows what the ripple effect is.  If you toss a pebble in a pond, the water ripples uniformly outward from the point the pebble hit the water.  It suggests that an action at one point and time will have reactions as its effects move outward.  It further suggests, right or wrong, that decisions and actions are taking place.

The Ripley effect, however, is a syndrome related to incompetence.  The night nurse making her rounds illustrates incompetence. She wakes the patient at 2 AM to give him his sleeping pill. Thought never enters into the situation. It is that kind of thinking that pervades the halls of government, if you can call it thinking.  It is associated with government because thinking is actually frowned upon and dangerous for the one who might do the thinking.  It is always better to stick with instructions and the already established practice.  Even better, avoid all thought and action by delays or further investigations and hearings.

This brings me to General James Ripley, Chief of Ordnance under Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War.  President Lincoln did not suffer from a condition of normal bureaucratic mental constipation, as has always been the dominant thinking process for civil servants and political appointees.  When confronted by a builder of hot air balloons, one equipped to soar above a battlefield for observation, Lincoln ordered General Winfield Scott to try it.  Reluctantly, Scott used one at the Battle of Manassas.  The information provided by the observers helped the outnumbered Union forces win that battle.  The Ripley Effect set in, however, and General Scott refused to use it again, though it proved useful.  After all, it was NIH, not invented here, but by Lincoln.

Lincoln also tried out the Henry Repeating Rifle and was impressed, ordering his Chief of ordnance to review and use it.  Again, it was NIH for the Army.  General Ripley knew that a good soldier, accomplished in the use of his muzzle-loading rifle, could dispatch up to three bullets a minute.  That was certainly enough.  He believed being able to shoot seven to fourteen bullets each minute would be a costly waste of money for the Army.  He refused to purchase the repeating rifles.  There were instances, however, where organizing commanders of local militias would purchase repeaters for their men.  Proven many times, repeating rifles in the hands of a small number of Union soldiers, allowed them to hold off and defeat larger numbers of Confederates.

In spite of proof to the contrary, General Winfield Scott and General James Ripley, each doggedly stuck to their positions and refused to budge.  That is the Ripley Effect.  It is still a common condition found in government. The further the seat of government is from the people, the worse it gets.  City and county governments show signs of the Ripley Effect, but nowhere near as bad as in State government or, worse, the Government in Washington, D.C...  Just think of how incompetent the governing processes will be when Americans, from the Democratic Socialist Party hand the United Nations the power to govern America.

The center of American Government, up until the early part of the 20th century, has been on the local level, the cities and counties. This is considered by many to be the more beneficial Home Rule ideal of governance. Bumbling incompetence was easy to recognize. It was often such a laughing matter that corrections were made, if for no other reason, face-savings.  The State Government was too far away, so Ripley Effect incompetence ran rampant.  The Federal Government, however, was way beyond a voting citizen's ability to see or change, and it infected all but the newest civil servant who had yet to be infected with it.  Elected congressional representatives, who saw how the Ripley Effect held government in traction, soon gave up fighting it and joined in.

These syndromes have nothing to do with the political party in charge.  It is a syndrome associated with all governments throughout history.  Those elected or appointed to any office in any level of government will become the victim of the Ripley Effect.  The only hope for the people governed, is that the office-holders and civil servants are closer to them so their follies are seen. Further, that the ripple effect, getting something done, right or wrong, is more likely to occur than the Ripley Effect. That alone justifies home rule, local government, as so important.  Then, should the nurse try to wake all the patients to give them their sleeping pills, someone can tell her to stop and smell the roses, and think about what she is doing.

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Clay Barham [send him email] has been a candidate for the California legislature and a stand-in talk show host for ABC.  He was educated in physical and behavioral sciences, with a Ph.D. in sociology.  He is the author of five books, with his latest being Foundations of Modern American Conservatism and Liberalism: The Roots of Freedom and Tyranny.  Visit his website at http://www.claysamerica.com.