The petty bureaucrats are usually just ordinary people. Since they work for the state they have a vested interest in seeing it continue, but for the most part, they are not personally evil. The work they do is evil, but they do not see it that way.

What does the state offer that is so powerful, so enticing, that people willingly turn their backs on their own dreams and goals, and become its thralls?

Jared Diamond asks this question in his book Guns, Germs, and Steel. His answer is that the state, for all its problems, provides stability. I would say instead that it provides the illusion or the promise of stability. It also provides someone else to take the blame.

To quote P.J. O'Rourke "One of the annoying things about believing in free will and individual responsibility is the difficulty of finding somebody to blame your problems on. And when you do find somebody, it's remarkable how often his picture turns up on your driver's license."

It is more that annoying for most people. It is intolerable.

Then there is the "get something for nothing" part of it. There is the "I don't like what my neighbor is doing" part of it. There is the tendency to "go along". There is also fear. Not necessarily fear of the state, although that is a part of it, but more fear of change, fear of the unknown, etc. The State, or rather the people who control the State, play on all these things, and more.

I do not believe that one answer exists. Instead it is many. Probably different ones for different people.

Sounds like you had lots of fun on the weekend. Happy birthday to Snolf the First and Lobo.