🚨 Captain’s Log — The Collapse of Quality Is Not a Cost of Doing Business

Quality Is Collapsing — and We're Accepting It Like Fools

Post-COVID product standards have tanked. But this isn’t economics — it’s rot. And its a spiritual rot.

This week, We had to buy a washing machine, our old one finally gave up the ghost. And rather inconveniently the cost of repair in a diminishing return, meant it would make more financial sense to replace it. So we did and chose a reputable German brand. Listed as premium but comes with a 5 year warranty and it was on Sale. Not naming brand as I don’t want this to be about just one company. Replacing an older model with a newer premium brand. You’d think: better design means better quality.

What we got was a unit with flimsier parts like piping an the power plug, thinner plastic, and visibly lower-quality finish than the old one. Side by side, the older machine — years old — looked better made.

This isn’t just this one company from Germany. I’ve seen this pattern across tools, electronics, logistics, software, and even basic building materials. Even dog treats! Since COVID, something has drastically changed. Quality has collapsed — and no one seems to give a damn to call it out and name it. Instead|:

• Increased broken features are shipped

• Increased templated support from outsourced teams that is below par

• Increased excuses or dismissals from C-suites

• Increased logistics delays with zero accountability

And most dangerous of all: more acceptance.

“That’s just how it is now. This is the cost of doing business”

That phrase is the virus. The delivery failure comes later. But the rot starts here.

📉 What COVID Broke — And We Didn’t Fix

COVID revealed the very real fragility in global supply chains. But instead of building back better as Klaus and numerous graduates of the WEF promised, the world built back cheaper. Thinner margins. Less QA. Lower to nil accountability.

Some businesses tried. Most didn’t. And far too many project managers, consultants, and entrepreneurs shrugged.

And this is not just me reporting my own experience. I did research. Here is a brief summary in support of my points.

The Rocinante Method does not shrug. As per it’s doctrine, it logs the risk. It names the rot.

"Justice exalteth a nation: but sin maketh nations miserable."
— Proverbs 14:34, Douay-Rheims

🛐 A Corpus Christi Without Reverence

Its not just quality of goods that is declining. There is also a spiritual rot. And example from my own faith is this. Today is the Feast of Corpus Christi.

Traditionally in my town, after the midday Mass on the Feast of Corpus Christi, the Blessed Sacrament is carried reverently in procession under canopy, followed by first communicants and the faithful, with the Rosary prayed and hymns sung through the town. Shops decorated their fronts. Communities stood still in awe. As per example below.

But sadly, this year in my own town, the procession after the Vigil Mass on Saturday, and not the Sunday of Corpus Christi, merely circled the church grounds. No Rosary. No traditional hymns. A crooner with a guitar. Benediction outside. The Blessed Sacrament was there, yes — but the reverence was diminished.

We did not lose a ritual. We lost our bearing.

When reverence for God fades, reverence for craft, for work, for tradition, and for truth collapses right behind it. And this collapse is global — not just in liturgy, not just in project delivery, but in everything.

“He who feareth God, neglecteth nothing.” — Sirach 7:19

🧭 What to Do When the Standards Slip

1. Log the Truth Others Tolerate
   You’ll be tempted to excuse it. Don’t. Start the Risk Register. Quality drop? Log it.

2. Confront the Normalisation of Defect
   Call it what it is. Don’t let “that’s just the way it is now” become gospel.

3. Restore Reverence Where You Work
   You can’t fix the world. But you can honour God by doing your part right.

This isn’t sentiment. It’s the doctrine of the Rocinante Method, which is not from me or the Fictional Crew of the Gunship the Rocinante. Its the Doctrine of Christ.

“For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” — John 12:43

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💬 Closing Words

This isn’t just about appliances or projects. This is about telling the truth.

The world is filling with excuses, softness, and silence. We are surrounded by tolerable failures dressed up as inevitable norms. But we were not made to comply with the rot. You were made to stand upright.

Christ is still with us.

Let us revere Him in our hearts. Let us name the darkness in our systems. And let us rebuild, one real, reverent act at a time. In essence aim higher.

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📥 Founders and paid subscribers can access:

• The Rocinante Risk Register Template

• Book Chapters with chapter 5 release tomorrow: Command the Field

• €79 triage call if you’re facing systemic failure

– Captain Mabro
Rocinante Method (Actual)

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