http://www.populistamerica.com/ripple_and_ripley_effects
Ripple and Ripley Effects
August 7, 2007
by Clay Barham
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The Ripley effect, however, is a syndrome related to incompetence. The night nurse making her rounds illustrates incompetence. She wakes the patient at 2 AM to give him his sleeping pill. Thought never enters into the situation. It is that kind of thinking that pervades the halls of government, if you can call it thinking. It is associated with government because thinking is actually frowned upon and dangerous for the one who might do the thinking. It is always better to stick with instructions and the already established practice. Even better, avoid all thought and action by delays or further investigations and hearings.
This brings me to General James Ripley, Chief of Ordnance under Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. President Lincoln did not suffer from a condition of normal bureaucratic mental constipation, as has always been the dominant thinking process for civil servants and political appointees. When confronted by a builder of hot air balloons, one equipped to soar above a battlefield for observation, Lincoln ordered General Winfield Scott to try it. Reluctantly, Scott used one at the Battle of Manassas. The information provided by the observers helped the outnumbered Union forces win that battle. The Ripley Effect set in, however, and General Scott refused to use it again, though it proved useful. After all, it was NIH, not invented here, but by Lincoln.
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