Weber's Rationality

Formal rationalization 1. Practical rationality (complete daily tasks in practical way: what to wear and eat) 2. Theoretical rationality (abstract, logical deduction, to conceptualize and understand the world) 3. Substantive rationality (used to make choices between right and wrong based on our values: deciding to donate to an NGO) 4. Formal rationality (also used to choose between right and wrong; however, instead of morality, it’s based on laws, rules, and regulations: obeying speed limit and paying taxes)  impersonal; rules are followed for their own sake

First watch: The irrationality of rationalization

As the bureaucratic system becomes more and more formalized, people will have to keep up with the standards of quality, speed and effort invested. As this becomes increasingly unmanageable, they compensate the poor performance in the system by sacrificing parts of their own: their body, their leisure time, their health, their savings etc. The bureaucratic system readily processes the information of well-performing individual and raises standards again. Once the entire individual capacity to compensate is exhausted, other means have to be found. People have to slip into red, take up loans, transfer their debt and postpone even more of their lifetime enjoyment. All along this process, the mere speed of bureaucracy as well as the immense social pressure invariable diverts the individual’s attention away from anything within (feelings, needs, thoughts, reflections) and around (peers, community, the poor) the individual towards his work. His concern with the bigger picture decreases as a function of the lag of his performance: the faster the assembly line runs, the more focused he will be to keep up.