This record was started on January
29th. I only finished the Episode just now.
The only thing that
can justify my decision to struggle through the Office today is this log of my
infuriations, which little by little Andy is beginning to reflect with
confidence. When Andy returns, he returns to an amoral war zone. Every one is
unified against him for taking a leave of absence that Erin herself encouraged
(not knowing the extent to which a Spiritual Quest can extend, nor how lucky
she was for getting off with three months, considering how long military wives
have to wait for a much less Noble Cause than Inner Peace) and their unity in
semblance only underscores their egocentric division in actuality. Some of them
pretend towards an equality which is not theirs, and those who are just as
pretentiously elitist back them up. People take breaks at their leisure without
consulting the AUTHORITY of their LEADER, and in place of a justifiable Reason
they present his own choices (as though they were arbitrary and not noble) as
though those same choices were without Reason, and as though the observation of
one arbitrary choice can merit an indefinite number of them. They treat his
Authority with the same regard as he is presumed to have treated David Wallace,
even though by so doing they establish a naïve, working class notion of the Boss
that is as hierarchical and dogmatic as the Hindu Caste System or the Medieval
Social Order. It must surely be the mark of a true serf that he will try to
level with his superiors by appealing to the authority of THEIR superiors, as
though his superiors were not closer to their own superiors in virtue and
thereby in possession of certain inalienable and inimitable Knowledge. They
treat Andy’s Reasons (measured in not only psychological need but, naturally, duty
to Self, Family, and God) as though they were merely HIS Reasons, and not the
very reasons for Human Life Itself. Three months is a laughably short time for
a once-in-a-Lifetime opportunity, especially for a Hero who saved the Office
and who (thereby demonstrably) possesses the moral discernment necessary to
recognize the value of a family heirloom and birth-right. But what the
egalitarians lack in common sense the elitists, by their very nature, one-up.
Oscar, the degenerate homosexual cuckolder with an excuse for every one of his
own foibles, the very voice of Corporate Liberal Hypocrisy, especially when he
(like all such diabolical voices) points out hypocrisy in Others, tells Andy
that Andy is not entitled to that one transcendent virtue that Andy has left in
a world of hypocrites and thieves: the Truth. When Andy reads Erin’s texts, Oscar
preaches at him, representing the Will of the Tribe, telling him to mind his
own business. But then Andy retaliates, pointing out the irony intrinsic to the
fact that Oscar is not only involving himself, at that very moment, in ANDY’S
business; Oscar too is, by extension, involving himself in Erin’s affair (and I
mean that word in most senses of it, if not all.) and that is much LESS Oscar’s
business than it is Erin’s, especially considering that the “formal” breakup,
which Andy had initially talked her out of with unassailable dignity and
Reason, was produced on an impulsive and (I dare say it) hormonal
pseudo-reason: her own happiness, which is hardly any kind of virtuous eudaimonia
in the context of its injustice towards Andy.
At this point I must
point out that I am only ten minutes into Episode Sixteen of Season Nine. I
have an other half hour ahead of me. I would have simply entitled this section
“Episode Sixteen: The First Ten Minutes”, but considering all the psychosis in
this Office, I had reason to suspect, as any man would, that going back and
adding a title that was not the first thing that I wrote (even though the title
of the Word Document will prove that, and in a way that would not so much
incriminate me as it would give me liberty by virtue of its own honesty, which
trickles down to its Creator) will be some sort of falsification of evidence.
It’s crazy, I know, to consider this in one’s own Private Journal, for fear of
what would happen if one chose to make something so unassailable as one’s own
Private Thoughts Public. But it underscores my point: that Andy is the least
Draconian of all the Office staff, and that he alone remains a fair and
levelheaded leader, despite the fact that even people like DWIGHT scorn him for
observing certain seemingly arbitrary procedures. He is not an aesthete, but
the aesthetes cannot tell him apart from them. Should he bother? Should I? Why
bother even to explain this to the Public? Was it not shock upon shock at their
stupidity that produces my reservations in writing even my own private
thoughts? Whatever. Maybe I will append whatever title I need. If I do so in
the Spirit of either exercising an Intrinsic Artistic License or in fathoming
the Absolute Depths of Aesthetic Perfection, I need not answer to the Oscars
who tell me I did it wrong.
Dm.A.A.
THE NEXT FIVE:
I got five more minutes in to the Episode when I
had to stop again. Several things happened:
1.
Andy made me laugh.
2.
Andy stood up for himself. (Here it
comes.)
3.
Pete tried to defend himself in a
manner reminiscent of Gabe, asserting his own right to violate not only his
fellow man’s happiness, but his Boss’s Moral Authority. (It’s still coming.)
4.
Andy tried to fire Pete. (Someone’s
going to get it.)
5.
Toby tells Andy Bernard that he cannot
fire people over Grudges. (Angry Andy is nearing the Boiling Point.)
Now I see why Michael hated Toby, and why I hated
Toby on Michael’s behalf, as well.
The truth is that Andy has the right and DUTY to
fire Pete. He had the right to fire Nellie as well, though perhaps not the
duty. Andy was merciful and relented when the matter was simply professional,
but with the hippie candor of a Michael Scott he says “that was professional;
this is personal”. Of course, Stickman Stickler Toby Flenderson greets the
ejaculation with a remorseful but irreverent silence, as though to say: No.
Personal feelings are less important than professional concerns. Your Life does
not Matter. Only efficiency does. And we shall blame you for any acts of
justice that you try to take that might disrupt Office Efficiency.
Recall that it was Andy’s Leave of Absence, for
which he is still inexplicably BLAMED, that was the ostensible source of the
Office’s most Efficient Quarter.
If the System turns on you, it’s through no fault
of your own when it suffers under your Will. Your Will is simply coming into
alignment with Cosmic Justice, and by turning on you they have turned AWAY from
that.
Honestly. And I thought this was a Christian
Nation.
Dm.A.A.
Finally I was ready to conclude
the Episode. To my delight, my suspicions that the core characters are based on
the archetypes of the Tarot was affirmed unequivocally in the closing scene.
Oscar, whom I had identified very quickly as the Hanged Man, very early on into
my fascination with this program, (and perhaps before I made any other
parallels, even between Michael Scott and the Fool) ends the episode by hanging
upside-down from an exercise bar that he purchased in an advertisement online;
he hangs himself by his own neo-Liberal hypocrisy, so to speak, acting as the moral(istic)
Vox Dei of the Office whilst he steals company time to lose himself in
consumerism.
The sheer length of the episode
all so corroborates my theory that one can watch the Best Of the Office by
viewing every fourth episode consecutively, as well as the Season Finales,
because the show follows a format wherein every Story Arc is four episodes long.
Dm.A.A.
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