There's been an interesting proposal suggested regarding a tentative solution to some of our problems. I heard this suggestion made regarding the space program but it's clear it applies at a more global level. The problem is that calcified layer of management that no longer effectively leads (assuming it ever did) and in fact, actively impedes the progress of the others. This crusty layer now obstructs the flow of progress as surely as a slimy hairball caught in the shower drain. But what can be done?

Many of these were those who rose under a different eye that rewarded loyalty to human frailty instead of nobler motivation. As with all contracts written without ink their barbed tendrils now resist retraction. Their service can't be easily terminated even if it should. But what if instead they were to be advanced along service lines, an intentional application of the Peter Principle, into a particular department of the government created specifically to corral them into harmless activity? That's genius!

"If you're not part of the future then get out of the way." Hoosier laureate John Mellencamp said that regarding a peaceful world but there's no reason that doesn't apply to its progress also. For example, it's encouraging to see more and more people aware of the advantages of sustainable living, revealing with stark contrast that opposing minority that shrinks by the day even as it sticks to ignorant policies proven clear failures by generations that suffered under them.

Of course those who apply for this very special promotion would be the last to see the problem and identify themselves as the cause thereof. You can't very well ask them to understand that their intransigence is costing the rest of us dearly, because frankly they're not in it for the money, they're in it for the opportunity to be bossy and feel important. It's not credible to think they advance their deleterious policies to benefit the rest of us, it's simply not. You can't protect someone who's trying to destroy you (quoted here before, likely quoted again).

We can't ask them to, very well, die. But once there if they choose to retire, hey thanks, here's your watch. This recalcitrant and truculent upper layer of old cootage would have one more certificate, one more award with which to compare themselves to the actually accomplished. Welcome to where you go when you're past your prime. This is the destination you arranged once past your positive contributions.

Excess baggage. Spent tanks. Jettison mass.

This might work.