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Date Posted: Friday, March 04, 09:51:07am
Author: sk
Subject: It took me awhile to get back to this topic
In reply to: Nell 's message, "Great comment! (r)" on Tuesday, February 22, 07:18:35pm

That last point raises some questions about the way the Agency -- and by extension Jones -- managed its personnel. I think it would be natural to expect that people in high-pressure positions like Madeline�s might be vulnerable to exactly that kind of stress-related impairment over time -- the failure of Center and Oversight to put into place methods of detecting such problems and intervening to provide assistance is just as bad, in my opinion, as the similar criticisms raised against Madeline and Operations in the way they managed their own employees. In both situations it led to the organization squandering resources that they could have, with better management, saved. JayBee

One of the things about Section that peeved me from the very beginning was their wasteful approach to their human resources. In S1, there don't seem to be all that many layers above Section, by the end of S5 there were many, and they did absolutely seem to have exactly the same attitude, which does suggest that Madeline and Paul simply operated within the system rather than created it. Nell

I wanted to put these two quotes together because I think they're both onto something crucial about the way that Section (and by extension, the agency as a whole) operated -- it was an extremely utilitarian machine. That kind of ruthless efficiency is at the core of the "personality" of the organization, and affected almost everything that happened there, either directly or in a responsive action. In this setup, people are the ultimate "renewable resource" -- they are indeed all expendable. Even though it's proved time and again in the program that this isn't the case (particular people have particular skills -- they are not interchangeable), the official policy doesn't reflect that.

I agree with the "Madeline wouldn't have killed herself" position, but I can imagine a situation in which she might have believed she didn't have any other option, and this utilitarian policy is a big part of that. If she thought that Jones was really going to review Section, and apply the same kind of criteria to her that she had applied to other operatives in the past, I can believe that she might choose to take her own life rather than have it done for her.

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Re: It took me awhile to get back to this topic -- JayBee, Saturday, March 05, 01:56:46pm