At the explanation of the Mona Lisa. Because, frankly, that piece of cultural errata always escaped me.

This is "procedure" in an environment where IT decides the business rules. In a company where IT is a profit center, this makes sense. However, for most companies IT is a cost center - it exists as a cost of doing business. When an IT department actually makes it difficult to do the company's business (overly restrictive and inflexible email limits, aggressively locked down computers, etc) the IT department isn't doing its job of _serving the customers_. Yes, building a secure system that allows for user flexibility is much more work, has a greater possibility of failure, hacks, and social engineering; but if IT decisions are made outside the business realities (what you call politics) then they're bad policies.