I remember my sister coming home from exams and telling all the family that she had failed dismally. When the results came out, she passed, of course, and we were all so relieved. She was exhilarated and I remember asking her, “Why did you tell us you failed?” and she said, “I wanted to be surprised.”
It’s a funny mental game we play with ourselves, and sometimes, it makes sense. We watch our house burn down, and we say,”At least we are still alive.”:We cheer ourselves up by imagining the very worst and then, console ourselves when it ain’t so bad. But when the media and the government are doing it, however, we had better beware.
The unemployment figures came out a few weeks back. We hit double digits, but “not as bad as expected,” we were reassured. How bad is 10% ? The worst in 20 years!!!Then, this week, more figures and the headline is “The latest figures are not as bad as first thought.” That was the first line.
It works. We feel better already. But then, when you think about it, you see the con. Titianic sinks but only 1523 lives lost, not 2200. Or, 9-11 kills 3000 but could have taken 50,000. Swine flu pandemic only kills 12. HItler only wants the Sudetenland, not Poland and the rest. Whew!!! What a let off! We are going to be OK!!!
Are you feeling better? The danger is we are kidding ourselves. Hiding the bad news in the threat of worse news is a con man’s delight. Its a narrative technique of creating optimistic catastrophes. Make us feel better by saving us from feeling worse.
The ability to look reality hard in the face and not blink is the way most leaders lead us out of the morass. Lincoln doesn’t tell us that 650,000 deaths is a small price to pay for ending slavery. Churchill doesn’t suggest that seeing London destroyed is good medicine.
When your doctor tells you he has good news and better news, and that the good news is you have cancer and the better news is that you don’t have lukemia, you know you are with a spin doctor. The medicine the economy needs most is some reality therapy. Tell us the truth. Don’t fudge it-That’s what got us into this mess. But then, it could have been a lot worse. An asteroid could have hit us and the martians could have invaded.