Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT

WCDT 4171-4175 (6 to 10 Jan 2020)

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St.Clair:
"I had hoped to be able to make my client's case to a person, but it seems I'm only speaking to a non-sentient component."

BenRG:
The horrible part of it is that Mr Bureaucrat is actually 100% factually correct about the situation. What is annoying is that he clearly has no emotional investment and doesn't really care (indeed probably has been training himself not to care for a while). May has no personal existence to him beyond a line in a spreadsheet somewhere and he sees no point wasting his time challenging a policy and official attitude  that won't change simply because the situation doesn't matter to him.

I think it's the aggressive nature of disinterest that really burns. Yes, yes, ex-inmate #25646 has a hard time. Well, that's a shame; why are you telling me this as if it will change anything?

The really important outcome of this meeting is the second bubble in panel 3; that's the lever that Roko was looking for. The admission that the Department of Correction's inadequate body budget means that they are knowingly sourcing junkers. "We know that we are risking these ex-prisoners' health but we don't have the money to do anything else." When the lawsuit over that admission gets to court, this guy would have long since have lost his job for dropping the Department in an embarrassing and expensive situation. It probably won't even get to court; they'll find the money to get May a new body in exchange for the withdrawal of the suit and May's signature on an NDA.


--- Quote from: St.Clair on 07 Jan 2020, 23:11 ---"I had hoped to be able to make my client's case to a person, but it seems I'm only speaking to a non-sentient component."
--- End quote ---

I've worked in the public sector bureaucracy. Trust me, you are not encouraged to be anything else.

pendrake:
@BenRG...

Exactly, Jeph did an excellent job showing this disinterest in every panel of this comic (4173)...
 - panel 1: "I don't 'make' time.  I have a schedule." = He clocks in physically, but he has already clocked out mentally.
 - panel 2: "It's not necessary for me to read that." = He does not even bother to look, because Roko's case is already pre-closed for him.  And if he is made to take Roko's file-folder, it will wind up getting 'processed' into the 'Circular Filing Cabinet'.  {If you do not know what that is, then you clearly have not dealt with enough Bureaucracy...}

(click to show/hide)"Circular Filing Cabinet" = wastebasket
 - panel 3: "...the body assignment department is not responsible..." = Not my problem/responsibility.  Therefore, not my job/task to do anything about it.  The System Works. :meh:
 - panel 4: the Bureaucrat's half-lidded eyes = Because [reason], [technicality], [red tape], [Do I want Subway or McDonald's for lunch?], [droning on], [Oh are you still here...?]

 - panel 5: the Bureaucrat's cleaning his glasses = See my own initial Comment above on what that means when people do that to you.  :x
 - panel 6: "...I'm not sure what you hoped to accomplish by coming here today." = I could be tending to something more important than you.

oddtail:

--- Quote from: BenRG on 07 Jan 2020, 23:18 ---The horrible part of it is that Mr Bureaucrat is actually 100% factually correct about the situation.
--- End quote ---

--- Quote ---I think it's the aggressive nature of disinterest that really burns.
--- End quote ---

I think these two statements summarise the nature of the problem best.

Yes, everything he says is true. Including his implied inability to do anything of substance. But there's a huge difference between "look, we have no budget for this. I really don't think we can do anything here. Let's look at what you have and figure out where any wriggle room in the system is" and "there's no budget for this. Ipso facto, you're wasting your time and mine".

Dude's JOB is to work within the system. Not hold it up as an all-purpose shield from having anything accomplished.

Or to quote Big Lebowski: he's not wrong; he's just an asshole.

EDIT: I don't even know what made me think of it, because the situation is nothing alike beyond a surface level "short on resources" similarity, but I'm reminded of a (probably false, but it makes for a good story) situation that allegedly occurred during Nazi occupation of Poland.

An officer of the Polish Resistance contacted his superiors to get the squad's allotment of personal arms (seeing as it's pretty difficult to conduct war without firearms). His fairly large squad got assigned, I think, five rifles and one handgun. Which is a ridiculous number, but on the other hand - what can you do when the resistance in the region physically didn't have any more guns, right?

The officer's response was to jokingly say: "we'll make do, but maybe you have some bows and arrows we could use at least?".

Point is, I'm not saying the bureaucrat in QC is not in a no-win situation. What I *am* saying is maybe he should be trying to figure out where to get some bows and arrows. And it doesn't even seem to occur to him.

Stoutfellow:
Another emotional factor for Roko: "When I realized that my job wasn't actually doing anyone any good, I quit and took up another line of work. You?"

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