Re: Boston Weekly Dig on TERROR HOAX OUTRAGE!

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Brad Templeton <btm () templetons com>
Date: February 2, 2007 5:00:05 PM EST
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Cc: rberger () ibd com, dewayne () warpspeed com
Subject: Re: [IP] Boston Weekly Dig on TERROR HOAX OUTRAGE!


There's another situation here, one that is even harder to defuse
than an imaginary bomb, and alas we're all participating in it.
It involves one of the most powerful forces on the planet, humiliation.

People have a tremendously difficult time admitting that they were
the idiot in a situation that went bad.   For public  officials, it
is nigh impossible.   Since when do public officials, especially
police chiefs and mayors stand up and say, "You know, I was a complete
idiot on this one.  Sorry."   You don't see it happen.

So the more we ridicule them (and we seem to love doing it, perhaps
with a bit of schadenfreude) the more defensive they will become, the
more vitally they will fight to avoid humiliation, and the more
errors of judgement they will make -- a serious cost to the civilians,
themselves and the city.

It is hard to yield our sacred constitution-given right to laugh at
other people's folly, of course, and we should not be forced to,
but it's not going to end well.   It should have ended with a
"Sorry, we were all on edge over some fake pipe bombs and reports
from other cities, so we went a bit over the top.  We'll make it
right."

But it won't end that way.  And we probably won't make it any better.


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