How do you do your duty for people whose behavior you despise?

In My Humble Opinion
61

I’ve never had to deal with anything worse than being the executive assistant to the director of an outreach program. I became a lot more cynical about public assistance because of that job. I also learned that people with really fucked up lives usually have a mix of bad shit happening to them and creating their own problems.

Either way, it wasn’t really my responsibility to fix everything. Even if I had been one of the case workers, I would have made that my mantra, “your problem is not my problem.” The best you can do is provide the help you can provide. They have to fulfill their limited responsibilities in obtaining that help, make use of it, and preserve it on their own. You can’t live someone’s life for them.

If I were a doctor, I’d probably be a little bit frustrated at first when patients didn’t do what they needed to do, but eventually I’d develop a straightforward bedside manner because that’s my personality. I tell people the stuff they need to hear, whether they like it or not. That’s one of the reasons why my friends come to me for advice when they want an honest opinion and good advice.

In DoctorJ’s case I’d probably say something along the lines of, “You’re diabetic. If you don’t take care of yourself, you’re going to get worse. You’re going to have body parts cut off because of infection. You’re going to have to have surgery and dialysis. Eventually, you’re going to fucking die, and there will be nothing I can do about it. All I can do is fix you temporarily. If you don’t your part, you’re screwed. And it’s not my problem. Here’s your prescription. Have a nice day.”

I couldn’t do the kind of job that Oakminster does because I don’t believe in the system enough to support it even when it’s unjust. I probably couldn’t defend people I knew to be guilty just on the principal that everyone deserves a fair trial. I do believe strongly in the principal, but I personally could not do it. Because I know that about myself I wouldn’t get involved in that line of work.

If you’re having serious problems coping with the people you’re forced to deal with, maybe you need to be doing something else.

62

Well, as Saruman pointed out to the hobbits in that exchange, Gandalf very seldom did his own dirty work. He knew that someone was going to take Saruman off the board; he just had to wait for the pieces to move into position.

63

The irony of that scene was that Saruman knew Gandalf’s modus operandi well enough to point it out to the hobbits, but his hubris blinded him to seeing how it was going to rebound on him: for all of Saruman’s vaunted powers of persuasion and manipulation, it was Gandalf who was the real master of working his will through others.