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Federal Archetypes


jonmjohnson

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I was having a conversation with a colleague who asked me whether a particular person reminded me of someone else. Without knowing who she had in mind I had instead described what would be the archetype of this person. (In this instance it was a person who is a retired fed, had a wealth of management and policy experience, but had never done the actual operational work themselves - therefore they were vaguely familiar with policy without ever having to provide work products beyond that.) OK...I used the term archetype, and a case can be made that what I did was stereotype...but it did get me thinking, and thinking of the difference between an archetype, a prototype and a stereotype. (http://www.dailywritingtips.com/archetype-vs-prototype/)

Karl Jung (http://www.soulcraft.co/essays/the_12_common_archetypes.html) and Joeseph Campbell (http://www.hccfl.edu/media/724354/archetypesforliteraryanalysis.pdf) applied archetypes to psychology and literature respectively.

What also had me thinking of this...Netflix now shows the entire collection of M*A*S*H. For those too young to know, M*A*S*H was first a movie and later television show that ran from the 1970's through the early 1980's. Many people who watched this show view this as a allegory for Vietnam. The writing was excellent and the character development was playful. It dawned on me, however, that this show could be an allegory not for war in Vietnam but rather the kinds of people one comes across in a public administration bureaucracy.

Frank Burns - the by the book federal employee who allows strict adherence to rules and structure to inhibit progress.

Hawkeye Pierce - the polar opposite of Frank who never allowed a rule or policy inhibit his performance of doing what was necessary to achieve a positive outcome.

Hotlips Hoolighan - a well connected member who longs for structure and adherence to the rules, is completely dedicated to her role, but can turn the other way when convenient.

Max Klinger - always seeking an out from his circumstances but ends up never leaving.

Radar O'Reilly - the lowest ranked member whose knowledge of the paper process of bureaucracy can be used to suit various purposes.

My question posed to this community...are there archetypes that can be developed that can generally characterize the types of figures whom we see in the federal government? Would stereotypes or general characterizations instead be easier and more appropriate (informative) to categorize? What kind of archetypes/stereotypes/general characterizations (good and bad) could you come up with?

Aside from that, is there a line from M*A*S*H that you are particularly fond of? Too many to mention, but one that had me giggling when I heard it was Radar's announcement: "Attention, by command of the new commanding officer all officers report to the commanding officer's office, sirs."

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What about the film, Article 99? Here's a summary --

"When Dr. Peter Morgan (Kiefer Sutherland) begins his medical internship at a Veteran's Administration hospital, he expects to breeze through on his way to a cushy practice. Instead, he's thrust into a bizarre bureaucratic maze where the health of patients is secondary to politics. And the temperature really rises when he teams up with some freewheeling physicians, led by Dr. Richard Sturgess (Ray Liotta), who think they've learned how to break the rules-and save lives-without getting caught."

H2H

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