The brutality and sometimes sadism of engineering

Recently I was talking with a colleague about various matters, and my colleague mentioned that engineering is a brutal job which very few people last long in - and, FWIW, IMO that is likely to get worse given the current spread of engineering registration schemes in various states. 

It has long seemed to me that some people want - in many jobs, not just engineering - for the job to give them some sort of taste of war - of what they stupidly may consider the “glory” of war. 

They want things to be tough - they crave excitement (often misrepresented as “challenge”), and, owing to their inability to recognise the differences in human beings, they insist that others must also want and enjoy what they want and enjoy, which is irredeemably absurd. 

Those people are the modern day Napoleons - empire builders wanting empires without balance, no matter how many people are harmed. 

These people may suffer the flaws of psychopathy that are laid at the feet of some managers, but I consider that in most cases it isn’t psychopathy: it is “just” flawed character.

They certainly know nothing of know thyself (any self development they do or force others to do is regimented strictly to their perverted militaristic worldview), nor the value of living a life that is examined, and I suspect they don't truly have a life outside of work, as their home life is falsely used as a justification for their unbalanced vehemence. 

I consider them to have the perversion of being masochists ... and the instant they expect like behaviour from others, I consider them to also have the perversion of being sadists. 

Am I being too extreme? 

Yes, in many cases (particularly my current circumstances, where managerial support has been of massive help) ... but not all, and it is those few who have infested too many jobs (in this day and age I am loathe to give them the implied longevity of “career” - and this is not limited to engineering) - to the detriment of the world and the very real human beings they harm.

 

Assumptions / basis 

In writing this, I have assumed / started from the following: 

• decency matters.
  

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider: 

• I am currently going through an extremely difficult personal time in my job, and that is affecting my writing these last two weeks (and COVID before then);
  
• there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend to Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”.