The Weaponization of Complexity

Briefness is Power

The Principle: Clarity. In the Marines, when we issued a 5-Paragraph Order (SMEAC), it had to be understood by the most sleep-deprived Private in the squad. If the order was confusing, the mission failed and people died. A true leader does the hard work of making complex things simple for their team.

The Glitch: We are currently drowning in "Legalese" and "Bureaucracy." We pass 2,000-page omnibus bills that no single Senator has read. We sign Terms of Service that are longer than the Constitution.

The Fix: If you can't explain it on one sheet of paper, you are either lying or you don't understand it yourself. We need to demand that our "Leaders" speak in plain English, not in loopholes.

Echoes of the Empire

The Parallel: In the late 3rd Century, Emperor Diocletian tried to save the Roman economy by freezing prices on everything. The "Edict on Maximum Prices" was a massive, complex list of regulations covering every item in the Empire (from beer to lion feed).

The Result: It was impossible to enforce. Black markets exploded. Merchants stopped selling goods because the "legal" price was too low. The complexity of the law didn't fix the economy; it just criminalized the average citizen trying to buy bread.

The Lesson: When the state tries to micro-manage a complex system with top-down rules, the system simply routes around the damage.

Root Cause Analysis

The Symptom: You try to fix a simple error—a bank fee, a VA claim, a permit—and you are transferred to three different departments, none of which can help.

The Trace:

Obfuscation: In programming, "Spaghetti Code" happens when you keep patching a bad core instead of rewriting it.
Job Security: If the code is clean, anyone can maintain it. If the code is a mess, only the original author can fix it.
The "Feature": In government, complexity isn't a bug; it's a feature. It prevents the average citizen from auditing the system.

The Reality: We are running a government on "Legacy Code" that has been patched so many times it is now unreadable. We don't need another patch; we need a refactor.