When Emergence Turns to Catastrophe
There's an interesting discussion in today's NY Times [free Reg] about the institutional conditions surrounding the Columbia disaster and how it is that organisations repress and refuse to deal with unwelcome information. The fact that there was nothing that anyone could have done to rescue the crew of a significantly damaged shuttle may very well have led NASA to act in ways that prevented them finding out how serious the problem is.

Extrapolating that to a string of businesses and governments over the last few years would seem pretty reasonable. The power of denial is very strong; it works right up until the evidence turns into catastrophic failure.

With all the political and economic evidence percolating through the world at the moment, a significant amount of which continues to be ignored, recast or denied by those responsible for making decisions that will affect all our lives, getting in a supply of earplugs and large cushions would seem to be reasonable.