Pahor kot španski kralj Filip II.

Po naklju­čju sem rav­no­kar nale­tel na lite­rarni opis, ki se lepo pri­lega pore­fe­ren­dum­skim pre­mi­er­je­vim izja­vam o tem, kako nas je nje­gova vla­dna ekipa uspe­šno izvle­kla iz krize. Nanaša se na feno­men zani­ka­nja (denial) ob soo­če­nju s sla­bimi novi­cami. Knjiga se ime­nuje Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error, navedba o raz­šir­je­no­sti zani­ka­nja med poli­tiki in nji­hove zave­ro­va­no­sti v odlič­nost lastnega dela pa se glasi takole (str. 230):

…The sin­cere form of denial flo­u­ri­shes in poli­tics, too. To quote the histo­rian Barbara Tuchman:

»Wooden-headedness, the source of self-deception, is a fac­tor that plays a remar­ka­bly large role in gover­nment. It con­si­sts in asses­sing a situ­a­tion in terms of pre­con­ce­i­ved fixed noti­ons while igno­ring or rejec­ting any con­trary signs. It is acting accor­ding to wish while not allo­wing one­self to be deflec­ted by the facts.

It is epi­to­mi­zed in a historian’s sta­te­ment about Phillip II of Spain, the sur­pas­sing wooden-head of all sove­re­i­gns: ‘No expe­ri­ence of the fai­lure of his policy could shake his belief in its essen­tial excel­lence.’«

Knjiga je tudi sicer zani­miva, njena avto­rica Kathryn Schulz pa je nedavno imela zelo odmevno pre­da­va­nje iz serije TED Talks.