Recognize this? I found this quote by Charlton Ogburn in his book ”Merril’s Marauders”, Harpers Magazine, January 1957. ”Merril’s Marauders” is a first hand account of the Burma Campaign during WWII. In fact I have found similar quotations going back to acient Greece and I wouldn’t be suprised to find even older references.
”We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be reorganized. Presumably the plans for our employment were being changed. I was to learn later in life that, perhaps because we are so good at organizing, we tend as a nation to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization. ”