Bureaucracy, and other nasty things

Since childhood, it's been tough to understand societal norms. It was easy to figure out that crying in a store is embarrassing for the mother, yet it was hard to realise why the adults would frown and shake their heads at chasing pigeons.

The more adult (for the lack of a better word) I become, the less I understand why certain customs and traditions remain at large, and I'm not talking about keeping the door open for a stranger behind you. What seems to boggle my mind is the fact that everything is one giant theatre. A play of massive scale, where pretending to understand what is going on earns you the approval of other humans who pretend all the same. At least in MMORPGs, there is a clear goal with a clear role you fulfil based on your own desires. Oh, you want to be an [insert career option]? Tough luck, buddy, because there is a mountain of paper-pushing to be done. We won't do it, and you have to pay us for a fancy, gilded paper.

Why is adulthood so unnaturally laced with bureaucracy, formalities, and paperwork? It appears alien to humans, as if we're collectively answering to a higher being, and it wouldn't be such a problem if God, C'thulu or Flying Spaghetti Monster were obsessed with forms and signatures, but it's just institutions. Where people work. Ordinary people. Just like you and me. Working for the highest being of all - the government.

Perhaps I'm just jaded from having to drive half a day just to leave my name on a piece of paper and to give them an empty CD (yes, an actual CD in the year 2022) because none of my devices have a CD-drive. But I had to bring a CD, any CD, to please the overlords insisting on "going green".