Of course. The truth isn’t something anyone wants- the truth is already known. What virus in the history of the world has just popped up, infected millions, and then vanished in a couple months all in its own? We didn’t do anything to make the virus go away- we just distanced ourselves to slow the spread. If the ONLY thing stopping your bathroom from flooding is your finger in the pipe- if you take your finger out and haven’t fixed the leak... why wouldn’t your bathroom flood?
But... it’s a tactic fir dealing with people. Executive tip: in logistics- you underpromise and over deliver. If you think it’ll be Tuesday- say Friday. If it comes Tuesday- they are happy. This works in logistics because at the end of the day... if I tell you your package is on a truck- SOMEWHERE between you and west bugtussel- what can you ask me to do? Short of flying a helicopter out and doing a daring in motion freight rescue for your package- it’s where it is. There’s no one who ah work harder to bend the fact that there are 1,000 miles between you and your shit, and the truck can’t travel them faster than 55 or so at an hour at BEST.
But- things like this... oh man. People want SOMEONE to do SOMETHING and anything less than what they want is failure. So... you know it can’t be delivered until 12 months in a perfect world. Probably gonna he 24. You can’t say that. People will flip, and as those months drag on- they’ll get impatient and lose track of time like dogs (we already have. It’s only been 3 months and look how crazy people are getting).
And they’ll have 24 months to get increasingly upset and rally and blame people. So you use weasel words, deflect and be ambiguous as much as possible “soon.” “Imminent” “as fast as possible.” And if pinned- you give a bullshit estimate of 1/2-1/4 what you really think it’ll be. Most of the time that resets the clock. People say “ok. I’ll just have to wait this little amount of time...” they don’t want to look like “babies” and over react to a reasonable delay.
Then.. BAM! “Unexpected..” “due to unforeseeable..” “changing circumstances..” “new evidence..” revision of time frame. You and I this several times before people get seriously frustrated- and when they do- it will be more directed at the changing timeline than the actual issue or the total time.
This works extra well at the executive level because if it is a PERFORMANCE issue- you’re to blame. You didn’t do your job. But if people are upset about being jerked around- you can deflect that. You relied on experts and advisors, you had spokespeople or those you delegates to setting those times- so when people are made about changing deadlines- the finger gets pointed somewhere lower than you. You get to look like a good leader “I take my responsibility. Those under me are my charge...” without much real danger. You can join in the mob “I am also outraged! The office of public blah blah had all our trust and this conduct is unacceptable. I pledge a lengthy investigation to find the people who cost us all this time and money!”
That’s a better scenario for the people in charge. But- in fairness- they don’t have a lot of choice. People are often ignorant. They’ll fire a good leader not for doing a bad job- or a worse job than could be expected of a human in a situation- but for simply being wrong or simply because they are mad and want to take it out on someone. Someone has to pay for their distress and anger. So if we demand a sacrifice- they’ll give it to us- and it would be foolish to assume they’d make themselves the sacrifice. You don’t give up your king to save a pawn or even a rook. Some pieces are harder to replace- some have more uses.
But by and large we can ignore the taking heads in matters if simple common sense. If they say anything except “this is probably going to last a long time- may last decades or just forever- we don’t know enough about this new virus yet to say..” and anything other than “every time you go outside for any reason, interact with another human outside your house or who has been outside- for any reason- every time you even touch something another human you don’t live with has touched- even a package or food delivery... you are risking infection and spread of infection.”
If they say anything other than “there are many ways to protect yourself and your family- but we don’t want people taking the most extreme steps of self protection because that would cause logistical and resource strain, shortages to people we’ve deemed to be more important to society than you..” just know it’s wrong. It’s not fuzzy and warm, but survival situations seldom are. The goal is to minimize the number of dead and damages- WHILE maintaining control and preserving the overall structure of power and affluence so it can resume as things left off as close as possible once able. Some people are “worth more” to the people who make decisions- some people are harder to replace for a society and some people contribute more to quantifiable social metrics. People act more on emotion than logic though- so a response to a crisis is usually measured between practicality and emotional manipulation.
I agree with what you said -the manipulation became obvious here when they went from "ok it's very bad don't go outside unless absolutely necessary" to "heyyy borders are opening so you can go in holiday and we can welcome tourists, all the shops are reopening too so don't forget to come spend your money" in about 1 week.
But they could still either tell us that we are irremediably fucked and we don't have to strain ourselves trying to avoid the unavoidable (which would be a relief) or be clear about the stuff we can do, such as opening the windows when several persons are in a small, enclosed space.
Here the lack of proper communication is so great that my paranoid ass is still wearing masks and wiping down my groceries whereas my colleagues have abandoned all this, started passing food around and coughing above it and one stated, coming outside the bathroom "ah that's so cool we don't have to wash our hands anymore". This kind of behavior is dangerous but would be easy to prevent.
I don’t think they can agree. Where I live- we are still wearing masks because the law requires it. Most shops are still closed, food is carry out only. No public gatherings, shopping and essential or critical tasks only. But- not so if I drive 30 minutes away. I can sit at an open air patio without a mask along with 30 other people, and get a waffle. Barbers are cutting hair and so forth. They actually still don’t completely understand how the virus spreads. Initially they more or less just went with precautions that would cover most any form of transmission common to a “natural” viral organism. Now they are refining things- but not everyone gets the newest info or has faith in it at the same time- and political and other things guide the decisions politicians are making.
I hope, if not all over, at least where you are, that they get it together enough to alleviate some of the stress all the mismanagement and foolery is crating for you and yours.
Ah I get how a lot of people can be confused... Here they've contradicted themselves but at least stuff were coherent at a given point in time on a rather wide scale.
Yeah. I don’t know that this has been handled very well. Just goes to show- most politicians first concern is taking care of THEIR problems and THEIR best interests. I doubt many faces will change- at the upper levels of management anyway, as a consequence of all this. Sadly- even when the faces change people have an odd way of supporting someone different but just like the last one. I suppose when it comes to politics the average person is akin to the person who keeps dating losers with the same problems one after the other- because they never took the time to figure out the issues they have that shape those bad decisions.
I don’t know that it is realistic- but a fun idea taking the “string of loser relationships” metaphor literally- maybe the world just needs some time to be alone you know? As a species weaver had these major leaders since put adolescence. Maybe we need to be single and find ourselves- wait for the right leaders to come along and stop looking for them just because we are scared to be without them on our own... I kid of course. But fun idea.
Lmao. Yeah. That part could be pretty rough- and the (some people do this some don’t) “Screwing anything with a pulse” phase could be pretty bad when translated to global politics.
But they could still either tell us that we are irremediably fucked and we don't have to strain ourselves trying to avoid the unavoidable (which would be a relief) or be clear about the stuff we can do, such as opening the windows when several persons are in a small, enclosed space.
Here the lack of proper communication is so great that my paranoid ass is still wearing masks and wiping down my groceries whereas my colleagues have abandoned all this, started passing food around and coughing above it and one stated, coming outside the bathroom "ah that's so cool we don't have to wash our hands anymore". This kind of behavior is dangerous but would be easy to prevent.
https://external-preview.redd.it/1ThyJoFbvOcS39yVBRSrvdO8ew4h9qMuwe7qge8yUbg.png?auto=webp&s=a8fc2a204b661fece8fb0904afb2b4f0c63ac1f0