Institutions can outlive their purposes while their former foot soldiers move on.
Evidence
With the political questions basically settled, the prominent eastern researcher Herbert Schwedt was already asking in 1974 whether Ostforschung (and by extension the ofi cial politics of memory) had become pointless. His answer was startling in its sobriety: Some institutions can outlive their purposes. … In fact, expellees had gradually fallen into the gulf between their supposed leaders (who called for Heimkehr regardless of the changed present) and the general public (whose immersion in the present inspired little attention to the East). — Andrew Demshuk, The Lost German East, 1576
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Cold War institutions outlive the conditions that justified them — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 857; Outdated institutional partitions persist by tradition long after their logic expires — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1992; Successful institutions can dissolve from their own premature success — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 314 (+4 more)
Broader Connections
- Cold War institutions outlive the conditions that justified them
#exemplifies(0.95) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 857 - Outdated institutional partitions persist by tradition long after their logic expires
#expands(0.82) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1992 - Institutions and traditions persist because they are conspicuous coordination solutions.
#expands(0.78) — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 222 - Successful institutions can dissolve from their own premature success
#complicates(0.75) — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 314 - The same institutions can flip from care to genocide within a few years.
#complicates(0.72) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 699