This is not a pipe (the tragedy of compliance)

René Magritte painted this fantastic piece of a pipe. On the bottom, it reads, “This is not a pipe.”

If it isn’t a pipe then it must be a picture of a pipe. But as it states it’s not a pipe. But clearly, there is a pipe. But it says it’s not a pipe. And on and on and on. It’s a paradox.

I woke up this morning to the awful news of candle factory workers being told to get back to work or they would be fired if they left their post while tornado sirens were going off. 8 people died!

That is what indoctrination of compliance does to us. It turns middle managers into murders. The fear of getting fired is so strong–where will we go? How does that look on my resume? I don’t know the whole story of what happened but I can say this:

This is not a pipe.

(I’m obviously not talking about a pipe here.)