YES-MEN AND NO-MEN

“The power of officials is, usually, distinct from that of people who are theoretically in ultimate control. One of the drawbacks to the power of officials is that they are apt to be quite remote from the things they control. America has invented the phrase “yes-men” for those who flatter great executives. In England we are more troubled by “no-men,” who make it their business to employ clever ignorance in opposing and sabotaging every scheme suggested by those who have knowledge and imagination and enterprise. I am afraid our “no-men” are a thousand times more harmful than the American “yes-men.””
Bertrand Russell