Classroom Crisis 10 and 11 — Organizational Survival

Wow. I started out with mildly positive expectations for this show and it continues to blow them out of the water.

Why do organizations exist? So that people can accomplish more together than they could accomplish alone. To do this the organization imposes some sort of structure on organizations so that the members can accomplish things more effectively.

classroom_crisis_11_4

And what kind of goals do organizations have? For companies it’s to make profits.

classroom_crisis_11_5

And to protect their employees (although, in America at least, these kinds of companies don’t exist anymore).

Other organizations have a diverse set of goals. Police and fire departments protect their citizens. Universities perform research and teach students. Book clubs read books together. Religious organizations pray and worship and serve together. Armies defend their countries. Food panties feed the hungry. And so on and so forth.

Most of these goals are necessary and many are laudable. But, eventually, the true goals of the organization are supplanted by a more powerful and pressing need: the survival of the organization. Funding must be acquired. Members must be recruited. Power must be gained to ensure survival far into the future. Everything else is secondary. The original purpose is lost in the need for survival.

classroom_crisis_11_2

We see this with the vice-chairman, who originally wanted the company to focus on building great rockets like the founders. But now he’s only working to ensure his faction’s survival on the board of directors.

classroom_crisis_11_3

We see this with the students, who want to do research to make the world a better place for everyone. But now they’ve decided that the most important thing is A-TEC, the organization.

And of course we see it in the CEO, who genuinely wants to help the employees and the shareholders. But to do this, and ensure the survival of the company, he resorts to building weapons of war which will one day bring death to many people.

Are these organizations evil? No, but they live in a fallen world where the power of death is militant and manifest. In such a world, these organizations must naturally contend with death and try (albeit in the long run hopelessly) to ensure their own survival.

classroom_crisis_11_1

But in doing so, they fall. Their ideals naturally and inevitably become overshadowed by concern for the survival of the organization.

So what is one to do?

classroom_crisis_11_8

classroom_crisis_11_9

Kaitoh has the answer. Before his prophetic “no”, the machinations of the company fighting for its survival are rendered powerless. Although this likely means the death of A-TEC, Kaitoh realizes that there are far more important things. To conquer death you only have to die.

classroom_crisis_11_6

classroom_crisis_11_7

Also Kaitoh wow lmao.

5 thoughts on “Classroom Crisis 10 and 11 — Organizational Survival

  1. Your posts are always interesting and a joy to read. I feel compelled to comment on this post because I loved your Freudian slip where you said “Food PANTIES feed the hungry”. You probably meant pantries but hey, it’s Japan….

    Don’t amend the typo. It’s too good! =)

  2. I agree that refusing to sacrifice ideals for the sake of the organization is a huge part of overcoming the powers of the principalities (I suspect that this idea might be even more radical to a Japanese viewer than to a Western one). I think that one of the chief ways the principalities wield the power of death is by making us decide that for one reason or another other groups of people outside our own principalities are somehow less than human or at least not deserving of our concern or compassion. The CEO wants to protect the members of his company by building weapons, not caring about the people those weapons will be used against. Nagisa (or whatever his real name is) starts the series seeing just about everyone as means to his own ends, and a big part of his character development is coming to understand people as complex individuals rather than as opponents or pawns to be manipulated. A big part of living humanly in a fallen world is the ability to look beyond oneself and refuse the principalities’ efforts to make us see other people as something less than human.

    1. Exactly. The principalities use a divide and conquer strategy to build up the illusion that we’re better than other people and we’ve become part of an organization that will overcome death.

Leave a Reply to NW Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *