The Cardinal Sin of Micromanaging

 We all have things that get under our skin.  What may be a minor thing to some is a cardinal offense to others - that is just human nature.  And, one has to be honest with themselves - we all have these things, and we call them "pet peeves" or other names.   Some of us have more than others at times obviously, and I am no exception being a card-carrying member of the human race.  So, what are mine?  I am going to talk about one now. 

Many of us Gen-Xers have a culture we were part of, especially given many of us were young 20-something professionals in the 1990s.  In 1999, Mike Judge (who also created the sitcom King of the Hill) got into the movie business and created a cult classic called Office Space.  I have seen that movie several dozen times and it never gets old because I essentially lived that life back in the day.  The plot of the movie centered around a discontented white-collar software programmer named Peter Gibbons, and he was so burnt-out and disgusted with his life that he just "went through the motions" every day at his job.  Although he lived a comfortable life financially, as many young professionals our age did then, it was as if something were missing.  What exacerbated the problem even more was his boss, an overly-egotistical and micromanaging guy named Lumbergh.  Lumbergh's ominous greeting, "Hey Peter, whaatsss happening?" was such a bane to Peter's existence that every time he heard it he cringed.  Lumbergh was the epitome of everything we as a generation saw as evil about Corporate America and the office politics and other garbage that went with it. And, that is why Office Space was a big hit with many of our generation.   It represented our rejection of being made to fit in a predetermined "box" and it also gave us purpose as many of us also grew up during the mid-1980s, or the Reagan era, which led to two things.  First, we were the "latchkey kid" generation, in that a lot of times our parents were not as involved in our lives as perhaps they should have been, so we often had to grow up fast by learning life skills on the fly.  Second, the general economic prosperity of those years opened up doors to us - we saw the evils of communism before it fell, and most of us (liberal and conservative) wanted nothing to do with that system. We had new opportunities presented to us as well - we were the generation that saw the rise of the personal home computer, the cell phone, and the compact disc.  So, technology was very new to us but we overall embraced it.  It is because of those factors - learning to do things for ourselves as well as embracing new technologies - that made micromanagement a nasty, evil thing in our eyes.  And it is a huge reason why I, like so many others of my generation, have issues with it.  So, I now want to share my own personal experience recently with this. 

Since moving to the middle of Baltimore last November, I have had to make some adjustments - being a Gen-X Appalachian-American caused the challenges I faced to be something I had to take on out of principle, and take it on I did.  The landlord I have now - a bald but good-natured man who is close to my age - has some issues with micromanaging, and recently it came to a head with him.  Due to what happened a couple of weeks ago when a fentanyl-addled fool who had no business behind the wheel of a car hit our house, we have been seeing a lot more of our landlord over the past couple of weeks. Now, while I understand that a property owner does want his properties to be in good shape (I would too if I owned a property), there are also some boundaries that a person like him should not cross, and yet he did.  He started by rifling through our recycle bins (which is odd in itself) and then leveled a bunch of "do this" and "do that" concerning the way we live in our house we pay rent on.  It was not related to the structure of the house either, but was directed against us simply living life.  I finally had to put my foot down and tell him "enough," and although he acknowledged this, it will only be determined how much he took us seriously when he visits again.  So, let me give a couple of observations.

Micromanaging a person is one of the greatest violations to their personhood that there is.   It reduces a person to a means rather than an end, and it does not regard that a person is a full-grown intelligent human being capable of taking care of things themselves.  It also assumes that a person's God-given gift of life as an individual is something worthless to the micromanager, and that frankly is insulting.  Even God, who created the universe, doesn't micromanage - he gave us free will to decide for ourselves, and we choose to follow God although he desires we do so because he loves us and created us in the image he has of us. This is why a Catholic - especially a faithful Catholic - is committing sin when they try to micromanage another person.  We as human beings are not pets of others - we are persons who are subject to the rights and freedoms God gives us.  That is what persona est sui iuris is all about. My landlord needs to learn this lesson, as does every radical political hack who loves to emulate one of the most oppressive nations on earth, China.  If we don't respect the dignity of personhood in regard to others, then our faith lacks.  Enough said.

Any rate, this was my rant for the week, and just remember, if you have to deal with a person who gets his jollies off on micromanaging others, then know who you are in Christ.  You are an end unto yourself, not a mere means.  You are a whole unto yourself, and not a mere part.  And, as a human being you are entitled to certain universal rights under the natural law a supernatural God created.  When we realize this, it will be liberating. 

Thanks again, and will see you next time.