I assume that conflict managers are supposed to manage conflicts. That is, they’re supposed to defuse situations and get people to settle problems, often by compromise.
But that’s only when it’s other people’s conflicts. This involves them, and they aren’t going to take “No” for an answer and they aren’t going to compromise. They’ll do the very thing they’re supposed to talk other people out of.
So, for some people, I guess this is slice-of-life rather than humor.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
I had the same thought, SBill: but Ubi est iocus?
You mean, ubi est locus?
No, what’s the joke?
Fun Fact: “Ubi est locus?” is actually what Caesar said first; then when he figured out where he was, he changed it to “Veni, vidi, Vici.”
I think the joke is supposed to be that they are ‘conflict managers’ but they themselves are creating conflict by bullying the new kid. (They’re threatening him because he’s in their preferred hang-out.)
I imagine that bullying would be one of the things a school conflict manager would be supposed to be preventing, if such things exist. Do they?
They’re the tough gang. Back when WE were kids, the tough kids would beat the crap out of the people who were sitting in their spot, but kids these days, instead of beating people up, use nonviolent mediation.
@ Stan – “conflict manager … if such things exist. Do they?”
The German elementary school that my kids attend has a half-dozen schoolkid “Streitschlichter” (literally “conflict resolvers”). Almost all of them are 5th or 6th grade girls; I believe that there is only one boy on the list. The school also has (at least) one teacher who serves as a “confidential advisor”, but that duty covers much more territory than just conflicts with other students.
Yes, it exactly a play on words but at least a dispiriting observation that “manage” does not always imply “calm, reduce”.
*not exactly
I suppose Eisenhower, Montgomery, Rommel, Zhukov et al were conflict managers of a sort.
Joke three fold.
1) Kids will behave as kids no matter what new agey pop-psychology surroundings with “conflict managers” they exist in.
2) Although these new-agey pop pschology surroundings are meant to make things better, in actuality they set up stratification which kids will cope with by underground illicit behavior akin to organized crime and black market strong arming (this is the same joke as the kid looking for a parent to be his dairy connection).
3) Kids acting like mafia thugs is funny. (Didn’t you get the memo? …. There’s lots of memos going around in comics.)
CIDU Bill:
Discedit ille puerilis fabula seclusus non solum magnitudo clavi mutatio.
Huh? When I translate that back into English, it makes little sense. I said the joke is that our childhood pettiness never leaves us, it only changes in scale and stakes. Meaning that we do not leave behind the bad behaviour of childhood; we all too often carry it forward, causing more damage and institutionalizing it. I can’t see why you didn’t get a laugh out of that.
Without a dictionary on hand I might venture: Nugatio puerilis non disapparet et autem magnitudine crescit. But that’s not really quite right.
“clavus” is a tent stake :-|
My parents’ reaction to my complaint about being hassled by other kids at school – “You are smarter than them and they are jealous” – yeah, right.
Comics I Don't Understand 
I assume that conflict managers are supposed to manage conflicts. That is, they’re supposed to defuse situations and get people to settle problems, often by compromise.
But that’s only when it’s other people’s conflicts. This involves them, and they aren’t going to take “No” for an answer and they aren’t going to compromise. They’ll do the very thing they’re supposed to talk other people out of.
So, for some people, I guess this is slice-of-life rather than humor.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
I had the same thought, SBill: but Ubi est iocus?
You mean, ubi est locus?
No, what’s the joke?
Fun Fact: “Ubi est locus?” is actually what Caesar said first; then when he figured out where he was, he changed it to “Veni, vidi, Vici.”
I think the joke is supposed to be that they are ‘conflict managers’ but they themselves are creating conflict by bullying the new kid. (They’re threatening him because he’s in their preferred hang-out.)
I imagine that bullying would be one of the things a school conflict manager would be supposed to be preventing, if such things exist. Do they?
They’re the tough gang. Back when WE were kids, the tough kids would beat the crap out of the people who were sitting in their spot, but kids these days, instead of beating people up, use nonviolent mediation.
@ Stan – “conflict manager … if such things exist. Do they?”
The German elementary school that my kids attend has a half-dozen schoolkid “Streitschlichter” (literally “conflict resolvers”). Almost all of them are 5th or 6th grade girls; I believe that there is only one boy on the list. The school also has (at least) one teacher who serves as a “confidential advisor”, but that duty covers much more territory than just conflicts with other students.
Yes, it exactly a play on words but at least a dispiriting observation that “manage” does not always imply “calm, reduce”.
*not exactly
I suppose Eisenhower, Montgomery, Rommel, Zhukov et al were conflict managers of a sort.
Joke three fold.
1) Kids will behave as kids no matter what new agey pop-psychology surroundings with “conflict managers” they exist in.
2) Although these new-agey pop pschology surroundings are meant to make things better, in actuality they set up stratification which kids will cope with by underground illicit behavior akin to organized crime and black market strong arming (this is the same joke as the kid looking for a parent to be his dairy connection).
3) Kids acting like mafia thugs is funny. (Didn’t you get the memo? …. There’s lots of memos going around in comics.)
CIDU Bill:
Discedit ille puerilis fabula seclusus non solum magnitudo clavi mutatio.
Huh? When I translate that back into English, it makes little sense. I said the joke is that our childhood pettiness never leaves us, it only changes in scale and stakes. Meaning that we do not leave behind the bad behaviour of childhood; we all too often carry it forward, causing more damage and institutionalizing it. I can’t see why you didn’t get a laugh out of that.
Without a dictionary on hand I might venture: Nugatio puerilis non disapparet et autem magnitudine crescit. But that’s not really quite right.
“clavus” is a tent stake :-|
My parents’ reaction to my complaint about being hassled by other kids at school – “You are smarter than them and they are jealous” – yeah, right.