3 ms·

Ah, but the obedience of the peons IS the system. This is why we have enshrined the idea of "following orders is not an excuse". There will always be people wil

Ah, but the obedience of the peons IS the system. This is why we have enshrined the idea of "following orders is not an excuse". There will always be people willing to do bad things because they are told, and we must treat them as culpable. I guess you can argue that poverty "forces" people into working for the TSA, but that's just as dehumanizing because it implies they have no agency. These people have agency, and chose to work for the TSA, which they likely knew beforehand was a much detested organization. Without peons, there are no effectors for the policies passed from above, and historically, we've seen the people at the top be terrified and manipulated by disorder in their bottom most ranks.

morganvachon 11y ago
And yet you have people like me, who work for "the man" (in my case as customer relations), whose job is to ensure the public is well served and gets exactly what they need from the agency. Granted, I work for local government and not federal, but the concept is the same. I go out of my way to make sure the person whose needs I'm serving are met, with a smile and courteousness that I'm not forced to offer. Of course, I could just "play the role" and be a cold, bureaucratic robot, but I prefer to give what I'd like to get. When I go to the Department of Driver Services, I want the clerk to be polite and helpful, therefore in my job I do the same. Besides, how do you know the TSA agent being spit on isn't trying to work their way up the chain so they can be a better manager and fix the way things work on the ground floor? Someone like coldpie could be ironically dragging down the spirit of the one person on his side. The world isn't black and white, nor is it two-dimensional. Every single government employee is not a mindless drone, implicit in the shenanigans of their superiors.
- coldpie 11y ago
  > [my] job is to ensure the public is well served and gets exactly what they need from the agency See if you can puzzle out the difference between you and the TSA clowns that makes me treat you well and them like scum.
  - morganvachon 11y ago
    I'm starting to get the impression that you're simply trolling here (I know I know, calling that out is verboten on HN but I stand behind it), but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt one more time. Would you prefer a doctor who only treats the symptoms, and derives perverse pleasure from inflicting pain on the patient in the process? Or rather one who focuses on the disease itself and seeks a permanent cure? Because you are clearly the former, not the latter. You have a laser focus on the effect, when you should be attacking the cause. If you can't or won't see that, I don't know what else to say.

morganvachon 11y ago

And yet you have people like me, who work for "the man" (in my case as customer relations), whose job is to ensure the public is well served and gets exactly what they need from the agency. Granted, I work for local government and not federal, but the concept is the same. I go out of my way to make sure the person whose needs I'm serving are met, with a smile and courteousness that I'm not forced to offer. Of course, I could just "play the role" and be a cold, bureaucratic robot, but I prefer to give what I'd like to get. When I go to the Department of Driver Services, I want the clerk to be polite and helpful, therefore in my job I do the same. Besides, how do you know the TSA agent being spit on isn't trying to work their way up the chain so they can be a better manager and fix the way things work on the ground floor? Someone like coldpie could be ironically dragging down the spirit of the one person on his side. The world isn't black and white, nor is it two-dimensional. Every single government employee is not a mindless drone, implicit in the shenanigans of their superiors.

coldpie 11y ago
> [my] job is to ensure the public is well served and gets exactly what they need from the agency See if you can puzzle out the difference between you and the TSA clowns that makes me treat you well and them like scum.
- morganvachon 11y ago
  I'm starting to get the impression that you're simply trolling here (I know I know, calling that out is verboten on HN but I stand behind it), but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt one more time. Would you prefer a doctor who only treats the symptoms, and derives perverse pleasure from inflicting pain on the patient in the process? Or rather one who focuses on the disease itself and seeks a permanent cure? Because you are clearly the former, not the latter. You have a laser focus on the effect, when you should be attacking the cause. If you can't or won't see that, I don't know what else to say.