“And next time we hear someone saying something like, 'We are pursuing this strategy because other strategies, when we had considered them, we concluded that, in terms of overall effectiveness, they were not sound strategies, which is why we enacted the one we are now embarked upon, which our enemies would like to see us fail, because they hate freedom,' we will wait to see if the anchorperson cracks up, or chokes back a sob of disgust, and if he or she does not, we'll feel a bit insane, and therefore less confident, and therefore more passive.”George Saunders, The Braindead Megaphone“It’s almost been worth this Depression to find out how little our Big Men knew.”Will Rogers
When privileged people repeatedly fail at a task, they quite often turn to harshness and even cruelty towards those whom they were purported to be helping, in a revulsion against their failed obligations.
Since they are geniuses, incapable of fault while maintaining their credibility which is founded upon their reputations and personal prestige, the people enduring their many plans themselves must have failed. And so the people must be made to change, to improve, and often to be chastised for their shortcomings.
And the financial masters will do this, almost piously, in the name of saving a system which in fact has become an extension of themselves, and which finally serves no one well but them.
So no real reform can come, and little progress can be made, because the 'managers' are incapable of even admitting to their repeated failures out of self-preservation. And they will excuse this in the name of preserving 'confidence.'
This is the credibility trap.
