Broken and obsolete

This sign was in an NHS hospital but it could have been anywhere.

Many of the systems we've designed and implemented in recent times are obsolete and hard to replace once broken. Many of us also feel broken and obsolete and forcibly replaced and so we vote for demagogues or ridiculous schemes to restore some idea of control over our lives.

We are also, however, endlessly imaginative and creative and we come up with ways to circumvent the broken-ness too. Take a ticket from the machine that's connected to the broken screen and we have a manual way of checking off whether your turn has come or not.

You'd best go and get a cup of tea from the canteen though, 'cos no matter what the system, you'll have to wait.