Records That Matter More Than You Do (noun, tragic phenomenon)

Records That Matter More Than You Do (noun, tragic phenomenon)

Pronunciation: /ˈrɛk.ɔːdz ðæt ˈmæt.ə mɔː ðæn juː duː/

“You are not a person. You are a chronology entry with a risk score.” – Internal Memo (Unspoken)

1. The phenomenon whereby institutional records—however inaccurate, biased, or incomplete—are treated as more trustworthy, valuable, and real than the person they describe.

2. In SWANKian usage:

The ultimate erasure. The moment you realise that once your name is entered into a system, your own testimony, reality, and humanity become secondary to what’s been written about you by people who never asked.

Common Consequences:

1. False allegations outliving truth
2. Flawed assessments cited as gospel
3. Reputation overwritten by report
4. “We have to go by what’s in the file…”

Symptoms:

1. Your corrections are ignored
2. Your lived experience is deemed “subjective”
3. The record becomes “official”—you become “challenging”

Etymology:

Refers to the grotesque inversion of care, where paperwork acquires moral authority, and people become footnotes to their own misrepresentation.

See also:

Institutional Gaslighting, Paper Warfare, Documentation as Survival, Professional Pretence, Trauma by Protocol