If Post 1 established that critique rarely collapses institutions because structure, alignment, and ritual stabilise them, we must now confront how institutions evolve over time. They do not remain static; they drift. And this drift is driven not by intention or ideology but by the distribution of collective attention.
1. Drift Is Inevitable
Institutions are complex fields of coordinated participants. No matter how well-designed:
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Attention is uneven.
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Priorities shift.
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Resources and focus are constantly reallocated.
Even in the absence of external critique, these shifts produce gradual, cumulative change. Drift is the natural consequence of distributed cognition operating over time.
2. Where Attention Flows, Power Flows
Institutions stabilise around patterns of attention:
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What participants notice and act upon becomes self-reinforcing.
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Signals that are repeatedly prioritised consolidate structures.
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Signals that are neglected fade, even if formally codified.
This is why drift often goes unnoticed: it is a slow reweighting of focus, not an abrupt failure. Yet it fundamentally reshapes the institution.
3. Critique as a Driver of Drift
Critique rarely collapses institutions; more often, it redistributes attention, producing drift:
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High-profile scandals attract focus to particular departments, policies, or personnel.
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Other areas, by contrast, receive less attention, altering internal priority.
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The institution adapts structurally, maintaining coherence while responding to the spotlight.
Drift preserves alignment; it rarely undermines it.
4. Drift Without Intent
Crucially, drift is not usually planned.
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Participants respond to local pressures and incentives.
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Field-level coherence emerges from these micro-adjustments, not from central orchestration.
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The institution is resilient because no single point of failure determines its direction.
Even reforms intended to “fix” the institution become part of the drift, absorbed without destabilisation.
5. Implications
Understanding drift reframes institutional critique and intervention:
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Change is often slow, cumulative, and structurally constrained.
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Efforts to accelerate reform must focus on how attention is distributed, not just on policy or ethics.
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Structural fragility exists in attention gaps, misaligned priorities, and neglected nodes, not always in visible failures.
Institutions endure because they adapt, not because they are inherently resistant to criticism. Drift is the quiet hand that stabilises continuity and maintains persistence.
In Post 3, we will examine:
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