I certainly think there are ways to comport yourself as a professional which have very little in common with Scott’s conception of a blankface, although pretending to professionalism is a classic blankface strategy.
A blankface is anyone who enjoys wielding the power entrusted in them to make others miserable by acting like a cog in a broken machine, rather than like a human being with courage, judgment, and responsibility for their actions. A blankface meets every appeal to facts, logic, and plain compassion with the same repetition of rules and regulations and the same blank stare—a blank stare that, more often than not, conceals a contemptuous smile.
A professional may be caught in a broken machine or bureaucracy; your responsibility (and the call for courage and judgement) then is to choose voice and eventually exit rather than loyal complicity.
I certainly think there are ways to comport yourself as a professional which have very little in common with Scott’s conception of a blankface, although pretending to professionalism is a classic blankface strategy.
A professional may be caught in a broken machine or bureaucracy; your responsibility (and the call for courage and judgement) then is to choose voice and eventually exit rather than loyal complicity.