Progress evaporates and leaves behind a trail of bureaucracy — Franz Kafka

Mainly, the theme of “One-punch man” is the boredom of Saitama to be so powerful (this) and “Boku no Hero Academy” is Midoriya’s enthusiasm for becoming a hero. Both of them want to become heroes for the sake of the profession …Yes, in both anime, being a hero is an institutionalized profession.

Heroes are government employees in which they must fulfill certain training and contribution to society in exchange for their protection service. The hero becomes a bureaucrat.

Bureaucracy is defined as the set of activities and procedures that must be followed to resolve an administrative matter. The term comes from the French “bureaucratie“, and this of bureau, office, desk, and -cratie,: government. This is used with a certain contemptuous character … but not for Max Weber.

Max Weber and the Iron Cage

In exercising a classification of heroes based on merits, a social stratification is established within a bureaucratic process of levels. Topics discussed by sociologist Max Weber.

For Weber, the bureaucracy has a positive connotation; based in that the system is more rational than previous alternatives (law and modern state), systems of administration that base authority on traditions (patriarchs, patrimonialism, feudalism) or charisma (family and religious, “Meritocracy”). To this rationalization of social life, Weber named it “the iron cage”.

 

Weber considered the bureaucracy as a type of power, and not as a social system. A type of power exercised from the state. On the basis of his observations, he predicted the fall of Socialist Russia (U.R.S.S.) due to an overbureaucratization rather than a sudden withdrawal from the state (as Karl Marx had predicted would happen in a communist society).

In the anime “One-punch man” we see how Saitama and others, for gaining a privileged place and a reward for their achievements, begin conflicts within the same bureaucratic system. Similar to the book “The process” by Franz Kafka.

Franz Kafka and the castle

In the anime “Boku no Hero Academy”, Midoriya struggles to enter the academy of heroes, which is not a candidate because it lacks powers. This anime shows the struggle of an individual to enter a bureaucratic system. As in the book “The Castle” by Franz Kafka.

Kafka is known for his works concerning a life trapped in a mundane work and bureaucracy. In the book “The castle”, the protagonist tries to enter a castle to be able to carry out the work that has been entrusted to him, however, the laws and the bureaucratic processes take him to an exasperating event.

 

The individual tries to enter the system in which he develops for his benefit. It respects the laws, it follows the bureaucratic process and, if it achieves its goal, it will be able to exercise the power of which Weber spoke, the power of the State.

Conclusion

It is in this way that, no matter how Kafkaesque the process within the administration of the State, is the only system we know to cope with the processes of a government. And because it is a system through which domination is exercised and is in a privileged social stratum, the individual will tend to want to belong to this select group of desktop workers. If this system does not work, the only solution will be revolution.