IN THE COURT

In The Court

After awhile the bureaucracy survives on routines. The structures are set up and people become automatons fulfilling their role in maintaining the system. People stop seeing. Stop feeling. Stop caring.

The whole purpose of the institution is corrupted. But what matters most is to keep the system moving along. Jargon develops and many insiders thrive in the institutional setting. 

When the system is supposed to dispense justice fairly and humanely -- then what is lost is more pronounced.

In the trial of the peasant accused of murdering his wife -- we are introduced to how an individual case gets sucked up into the machine.

As Chekhov writes: "The peasant, reassured, did not understand that the men here were as accustomed to the dramas and tragedies of life and were blunted by the sight of them as hospital attendants are at the sight of death, and that the whole horror and hopelessness of his position lay just in this mechanical indifference."

Chekhov then creates a situation which warrants attention. Which should wake people up from the usual routine. However, the shock provides only a respite. In no time, it's back to business again.

What we are witnessing is bureaucracy. Necessary but poisonous. It happens in hospitals, in schools, and in many other governmental agencies. The soul gets lost in the maddening rush.

Serious reform is needed. Or is this just the reality?

The court has many cases to deal with -- if everyone got special attention -- if all the people involved actually put a hundred percent behind each case -- the system would grind to a halt.

When we choose to live packed together in towns and cities -- then we've chosen our lot. We sacrifice individuality for the group. We give up a certain amount of freedom for function.

We all share responsibility for maintaining the system.

In fact, we become the system.