The Statesman
I've just finished The Statesman.
At one point toward the end of the dialog (between a young Socrates - not to be confused with Socrates himself, but rather a young man who shares his name - and an annamed Visitor), the Vistor theorises on the kind of society that would be governed by a set of Laws administered by people who are ingorant of the expertise in statesmanship, but dogmatic in their adherence to what is written.
In my own experience as an engineering tech during the last decade, I would encounter such technocrats while trying to get building permits approved - those who could not look past the letter of the code to see the spirit in which it was written and would require very silly applications - for instance, insisting that a contractor put a 4" thick gravel construction access road over a newly paved lot in order to install a steel warehouse kit building.
At one point toward the end of the dialog (between a young Socrates - not to be confused with Socrates himself, but rather a young man who shares his name - and an annamed Visitor), the Vistor theorises on the kind of society that would be governed by a set of Laws administered by people who are ingorant of the expertise in statesmanship, but dogmatic in their adherence to what is written.
In my own experience as an engineering tech during the last decade, I would encounter such technocrats while trying to get building permits approved - those who could not look past the letter of the code to see the spirit in which it was written and would require very silly applications - for instance, insisting that a contractor put a 4" thick gravel construction access road over a newly paved lot in order to install a steel warehouse kit building.