Post-COVID, ‘cadre indolence’ (literally ‘lazy governance’) is a widely heard explanation for grassroots dysfunctions like ‘ratcheting up criteria’ and ‘one size fits all’, not least in pandemic prevention/control. Enacting central directives, the cadre class seem averse to activity, and indifferent, even careless in crisis. Yet the causes are structural rather than individual: credit for success travels up while blame for failure is shifted down; the grassroots have no margin for error, making inaction a rational solution.
In the cartoon, a cadre in mandarin costume dozes on his rubber stamp of office (labelled ‘lazy rule’). As supplicants on all sides thrust documents labelled ‘work’, his only output is an order to ‘do nothing’.