Disguised compliance

This piece came about when a couple I know were facing a Compulsory Order for social work involvement.   No matter what they did, they were at fault, whether they did what they were told by the council or whether they didn't.

 For more background and a related poem see, Narrative Control I. 

It's a rigged game, I said,
Every which way -
right or wrong,
unfalsifiable,
unwinnable
with reason.

Jump the hoop,
tug the forelock,
doff the cap, say
you will, you can, you must,
say yes, say yes, say yes,
say they know best.

No, he said.
They call that: 'disguised compliance'.
We know it as definitively set-up.
So when...? So how...?

We'll help you really mean it:
Repeat again:
In the name of
the council, the social,
and the children's reporter:
"I will",
My council, my guardian, my god.