The kind of humor that evokes the deepest laughter is the kind that resounds most faithfully with the ring of truth.
We offer this observation in pale imitation of, but with profound respect for, C. Northcote Parkinson, the British historian and humorist who died this week at 83.It is he who, out of his World War II experience on the general staff of the British War Office, coined what subsequently came to be known as Parkinson's law:
"Work expands to fill the time available for its completion."
Though that is his most remembered line, other Parkinsonisms also deserved to be preserved: For example:
"The fewer members of an administrative staff available, the less work there is to do."
"The more senior you are as an executive, the more illegible is your signature."
"The time spent by finance committees on any item of the agenda will be in inverse proportion to the sum involved."
"If the head of the organization is second-rate, he will see to it that his immediate staff are all third-rate; and they will, in turn, see to it that their subordinates are fourth-rate. There will soon be an actual competition in stupidity, people pretending to be even more brainless than they are."
Though Parkinson is gone, his "laws" linger on because of the persistence of the conditions justifying them - a reflection of the triumph of inertia over learning.
If only Parkinson had paid closer attention to the American government, he could easily have formulated still another law of bureaucracy: Expenditures rise without respect to income.