“How We Became Our Own Bureaucrats — and Those Who Once Served Us Became Our Overseers”
By Velian Krav - 02/12/2025
There is a moment in modern history that almost nobody noticed.
A moment with no referendum, no debate, no public vote.
A moment that slipped in silently — yet reshaped our entire society.
That moment was when we began doing all the administration ourselves,
for the state and for corporations —
and we started doing it for free.
At the same time, those who once served us quietly transformed into overseers of protocol.
1. There is no law requiring you to own a smartphone, mobile data, or apps — and yet you must.
You’re not imagining it.
There is no law that requires you to:
own a smartphone,
have mobile data,
download apps,
use online booking systems,
own a computer or printer,
have a bank account,
use digital tickets or QR codes.
And yet… without these, you are effectively excluded from society.
Travel? App.
Doctor? Online portal.
Government? PDFs and uploads.
Workplace? Email, platform access, registrations.
Banks? App.
Schools? Online systems.
No phone → no access.
No app → no service.
No internet → no identity.
This is not progress.
This is dependency.
2. Digitalization didn’t solve problems — it shifted responsibility onto citizens.
Let’s be honest:
Digitalization was not designed for citizens.
It was designed for states and corporations to:
cut costs,
remove workers,
shift labour onto the public,
eliminate accountability,
increase control over people.
Once, you had:
a real clerk,
a real ticket seller,
a real bank worker,
a real human being helping you.
Today you get:
- an app,
- a chatbot,
- a PDF tutorial,
- a system protocol.
And when something goes wrong?
It is your problem — not the system’s.
This is a major civilizational shift.
3. Citizens became administrative robots. Clerks became overseers of compliance.
The greatest trick of digitalization is the reversal of roles.
Once:
The clerk served the citizen.
The citizen was the client.
Now:
The clerk enforces the system.
The citizen must comply with the protocol.
A clerk no longer solves your situation —
they check whether you followed every step of their digital ritual.
A doctor doesn’t check your condition until you first navigate their online maze.
Your employer isn't evaluating your talent —
they are evaluating whether you can handle apps, portals, and automated systems.
If you don’t follow everything precisely?
- You are “non-compliant.”
- You are “uncooperative.”
- You are the problem.
4. And the worst part: this happened without resistance, without debate, without consent.
That’s the sinister beauty of it.
People accepted it because it was:
gradual,
packaged as comfort,
marketed as “the future,”
sold as innovation,
normalized by repetition.
Until we woke up in a world where:
without a smartphone, you don’t exist,
without an app, you’re a violator,
without a bank account, you’re unemployable,
without internet, you are administratively dead.
This is not futurism.
This is technocratic feudalism.
5. Digitalization itself is not the problem. Forced digitalization is.
Technology is useful —
when you choose it.
But compulsory digital dependency is something else entirely.
It creates a society where:
elderly people without smartphones are punished,
low-income families are excluded,
parents can’t book doctor appointments without apps,
travellers become “fare evaders” without digital tickets,
citizens can’t deal with government services without PDFs and scanners.
This is not progress.
This is systemic discrimination disguised as convenience.
6. The greatest lie of digitalization: that we needed it.
No — we didn’t.
Ordinary people do not need:
QR codes,
apps,
portals,
digital IDs,
smartphones,
constant tracking.
What people truly need is:
accessible services,
human contact,
reliability,
fairness,
choice.
Digitalization wasn’t introduced for people.
It was introduced for the system.
7. And the truth no mainstream outlet dares publish:
“Those who once served us have become our overseers.”
Police, offices, banks, public transport, hospitals…
They no longer guarantee service.
They enforce systems.
Meanwhile, you now perform the work that used to be done by paid employees:
filling forms,
uploading documents,
verifying identity,
searching for information,
fixing system errors,
maintaining records,
sending confirmations,
troubleshooting platforms.
All of it:
Unpaid.
Unacknowledged.
Taken for granted.
And society has been conditioned to believe this is normal.
Conclusion
This is the uncomfortable truth:
Digitalization did not fix society.
It replaced service with self-service.
And instead of a modern world, we got a world where:
the citizen serves the system,
the clerk monitors the citizen,
corporations dictate procedures,
and a person without a smartphone is less than a citizen.
If we don’t push back now, digitalization will become:
a new form of servitude,
where your freedom equals your system access —
and without access, you are socially dead.
This is not evolution.
This is a silent downgrade of humanity.