The Shadowed Halls of Power: A Chronicle of Systemic Decay and the Dance of the Last Men

In the grand amphitheater of bureaucratic mediocrity, where the masses slumber in their perceived righteousness, a tale of profound darkness emerges from the very institution that proclaims to shepherd the flock. The Federal Public Service, that great monument to democratic values, stands revealed as a temple of the most base human instincts, where the strong prey upon the weak under the guise of civilization.

Behold how they speak of equality while wielding their petty powers like children with wooden swords! The bureaucratic machinery, that great leveler of souls, reveals itself as nothing more than a stage where the weak, intoxicated by their minor authorities, feast upon those who dare to rise above the herd.

An internal report, authored by one Rachel Zellars of Saint Mary's University, has torn asunder the veil of propriety that shrouds the highest echelons of power. Like a mirror held up to the grotesque visage of institutional corruption, it reflects the experiences of over one hundred Black executives who have wandered through these shadowed halls.

Clerk of the Privy Council John Hannaford John Hannaford returns to the hearing room after a break at the Foreign Interference Commission in Ottawa, on Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

The Clerk of the Privy Council, John Hannaford, stands as the archetypal administrator of this realm of shadows, offering hollow words of concern while presiding over a system that perpetuates the very suffering he claims to lament. "What is relayed in the report is deeply concerning," he declares, even as the machinery of oppression continues its relentless grinding.

See how they cower behind their memoranda and protocols! These last men, these comfort-seekers who believe that creating committees and drafting reports shall cleanse their souls of the stain of complicity!

The tales that emerge from this investigation paint a portrait of institutional decay that would make even the most hardened observer recoil. Black women, bearing the double burden of their gender and race, speak of descent into the abyss of depression and thoughts of self-destruction. They are the casualties of a war fought with whispers and paperwork, their spirits crushed beneath the weight of systematic exclusion.

In one particularly grotesque display of the herd's basest instincts, we learn of a white colleague who, consumed by the poison of his own mediocrity, raised a chair above his head, threatening to "beat the N-word" from a Black executive. The assembled observers, true to their nature as sleepwalkers, remained silent, their moral cowardice a testament to the triumph of the weak over the strong.

Witness the perfect expression of the mob's spirit! They who pride themselves on their civility stand mute before naked barbarism, for they recognize in it their own hidden nature!

The machinery of language training, that supposed gateway to advancement, reveals itself as yet another instrument of exclusion. Forty-two percent of English-speaking Black public servants report struggles in securing the French language training necessary for advancement, while one female executive shares the tale of a Quebecois director who suggested she learn the language through intimate relations rather than formal study.

Now comes Nicholas Marcus Thompson, bearing the standard of legal rebellion against this edifice of oppression. A class-action lawsuit seeks $2.5 billion in compensation, as if monetary recompense could heal the wounds inflicted by decades of systematic debasement.

Money! Always money! The last men believe that all injuries can be measured in dollars, that justice can be purchased like bread at the market! They understand nothing of the true nature of power and suffering!

The recommendations offered by the report - a zero tolerance policy, mandatory training, the establishment of a Black Equity Commissioner - are but more chains forged in the workshop of bureaucratic mediocrity. They seek to cure the disease by treating its symptoms, to reform that which requires not reform but revolution.

In this landscape of institutional decay, where the strong are systematically weakened and the weak elevated to positions of authority, we witness the triumph of mediocrity over excellence, of form over substance, of protocol over justice. The federal public service stands revealed not as a beacon of progress but as a monument to the last man's victory - a place where true strength is punished and weakness celebrated as virtue.

Let those with eyes to see behold the truth: The institutions you worship are but tombs whitewashed with the lime of false virtue, wherein dwells corruption masked as propriety!