Every once in a while this asshole does the Hotline thing in my head, appearing in a puff of cigarette smoke and brutalist architecture, saying stuff like:
“Imperfect stewardship does not invalidate the institution.”
Me, walking my dog and dodging a herd of commuters booking it off the metro, “say again my dude??”
The sentiment resonated with me (no pun intended): Evaluate the institution on its own merits. Evaluate the steward on their own merits. Don’t equate the two.
I think he’d have acted differently if he’d known the outcome (who wouldn’t?) but that’s not possible. Leaders make consequential decisions every day with incomplete information.
Watching the Resonant trailer, I couldn’t help but think Trench would’ve been devastated to see the shattered state of the institution he’d dedicated his life to and overcome with guilt at his inadvertent role in its collapse.
And yet, I think he’d have still been proud of his people. Even if all the actions taken in Control and Firebreak, spanning 6-ish years (2019–2026), turned out to be ultimately “in vain” bc the Hiss etc breached containment, Trench might’ve said the Bureau’s eventual failure does not invalidate the sacrifices made in its service. He’d probably look back over the decades since 1964, at every action taken by every employee in the service of studying and containing reality-altering objects and forces, and point out that they had kept things functioning.
I can imagine him saying something along the lines of: “We never know what our sacrifices buy when we make them. And that’s the bargain everyone who swore their oath made.”
So any ways, I made a quote thingie…
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