Under Construction @ Keele 2016 Volume 2 Issue 1 | Page 23

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series follows actually hates the Council for being too much of an institution, as he
points out to them in Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind (Series One, Episode
Ten): ‘You wanted to be safe from the government so you became a stupid
government. That makes every Rick here less Rick than me.’26 The pilot episode
also features Rick’s opinions on the schooling system: ‘It’s a waste of time. A bunch
of people running around, bumping into each other, guy in front says “two plus two”,
the people in the back say “four”, then the bell rings and they give you a carton of
milk and a piece of paper that says you can go take a dump or something. It’s not a
place for smart people.’27 In both cases, Rick’s problems with the institutions are
their dehumanising effects. He hates schools for the way that they pound simple
facts into people’s minds instead of letting them think for themselves, while also
detesting their restriction of civil liberties pertaining to things as fundamental as
defecating. Similarly, he hates the council for taking a group of individuals (of hims)
and turning them into one mindless horde. In short, Rick cares for individualism and
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