A Conventional Boy (Laundry Files #13)

by Charles Stross

“Games aren’t harmless, Iris. Like films and TV shows and books, they create in the audience a willingness to suspend their disbelief—they create plausible entertaining lies that we accept uncritically for the duration of a session.”

“So people believe in them?” “Yes. Now remind me, what exactly happens during a religious ceremony?” asked the SA. “People who share a common belief gather together and…” Her tongue juddered to a stop. “Oh dear.”

Caedite eos: Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius?”

The first law of Bureaucracy is, show no curiosity outside your cubicle. It’s like the first rule of every army that’s ever bashed a square: never volunteer.

If you ask questions (or volunteer) it will be taken as a sign of inactivity, and the devil, in the person of your line manager (or your sergeant), will find a task for your idle hands. What’s more, you’d better believe it’ll be less appealing than whatever you were doing before (creatively idling, for instance), because inactivity is a crime against organization and must be punished.