While the intricacies of administration often seem Kafkaesque to us, a surreal story experienced by a resident of Biarritz is enough to leave one puzzled. Between absurdity and incongruity, let’s relate it together.
Mr. Dupont (pseudonym), a peaceful retiree, saw his tranquility disturbed by an avalanche of letters from his tax administration. It seemed he had plunged into a modern version of Kafka’s story “The Trial”. In a single day, he receives 300 reminder letters to pay a debt he does not recognize: a staggering sum of 10 cents.
“The administration wrote to me to tell me that I owe 10 cents. I don’t understand, because I’ve always paid my taxes to the penny,” says our interlocutor, still in shock. But the most staggering thing is the volume of letters received: 300 letters for the same debt. “At first, I thought it was a joke. But by opening the 100th one, I realized it was serious,” he narrates.
Faced with this Kafkaesque situation, Mr. Dupont tries to contact the administration services, to no avail. “I spent an entire day on the phone, being transferred from one department to another without getting a clear answer,” he testifies. Finally, by visiting the local agency directly, he finally gets an explanation: a computer error would have multiplied the reminder letters for this ridiculous sum.
“I must have lost 10 years of my life due to the stress caused by this situation. If Kafka had lived in our time, he would have probably written a story about this,” jokes Mr. Dupont, a bitter smile on his lips. He concludes, with a hint of irony: “We often criticize the administration for its slowness… but to remind me of a debt of 10 cents, it was faster than lightning!”
This misadventure, both funny and frightening, highlights the potential excesses of our administration. Mr. Dupont’s story echoes these Kafkaesque nightmares where the citizen is confronted with the absurdity, inhumanity, and depersonalization of a system where formalism prevails. Once again, reality surpasses fiction.
Be First to Comment