![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
And this is why I had to have the conversation with Thetis up no later than yesterday.
When I say "gently but firmly," I mean that he leads off with the sentence "I would very politely like to remind you to keep in fucking line." He then explains that Proteus has "been entrusted with the task of doing what needs to be done in order to better the whole goddamn planet":
(Even in 1999 when I read it in the Aberrant, that repeated abstraction about general betterment struck me as the rationalization of a man trying to maintain his belief that what he's doing is not only the necessary thing, but the right thing. In the light of yesterday's post, I also see it as him trying to convince himself that Proteus has ever been about anything more than One Planet Under Thetis' Unaccountable Control — and to attempt to steer the actions of someone who will listen to him, since Thetis, being Thetis, won't.)
He further advises Chiraben:
Basically, if Chiraben even looks like taking any action that might compromise Proteus, Ozaki says "what you did to your last 'assignment' will look like a picnic with your grandmother" in ways that would make Satan weep.
June 9
[Aberrant] Director Ozaki reminds Chiraben, gently but firmly, that Project Proteus is not (supposed to be) an organization of torturers and psychopaths. "If word comes to me again of you misusing your power to get your own sadistic kicks, then I swear to God that you will be the next designated liability."
When I say "gently but firmly," I mean that he leads off with the sentence "I would very politely like to remind you to keep in fucking line." He then explains that Proteus has "been entrusted with the task of doing what needs to be done in order to better the whole goddamn planet":
Our operating principles are here in order to prevent us from paralyzing ourselves with every last ethical question; they were instituted by necessity so that we can achieve actual, regular progress on the betterment of human society as a whole. They do not give you carte blanche to do whatever the hell you like to somebody that has been designated a liability.
(Even in 1999 when I read it in the Aberrant, that repeated abstraction about general betterment struck me as the rationalization of a man trying to maintain his belief that what he's doing is not only the necessary thing, but the right thing. In the light of yesterday's post, I also see it as him trying to convince himself that Proteus has ever been about anything more than One Planet Under Thetis' Unaccountable Control — and to attempt to steer the actions of someone who will listen to him, since Thetis, being Thetis, won't.)
He further advises Chiraben:
don't even fucking think of trying to blow our cover to save your own skin. That didn't save Slider — who was one of the sweetest girls I've ever known — and it by God will not save you. I know where you live, and I know where you sleep.
Basically, if Chiraben even looks like taking any action that might compromise Proteus, Ozaki says "what you did to your last 'assignment' will look like a picnic with your grandmother" in ways that would make Satan weep.
