When we talk about manipulation, we usually think of someone who knows how things really are but wants to keep the truth to themselves. They want the rest of us to succumb to some kind of delusion. Take a sales director who knows full well that a product is rubbish but tries to convince customers that they are buying something amazing. Of course, this is something that is also part of political life.
But that’s not the worst of it. If politicians lie cynically, they can still make relatively rational decisions based on a realistic view of the world. But sometimes they start to believe their own lies. Not only do they dumb down the public, they dumb down themselves. And they make decisions that are completely nonsensical. For example, we ended up in a catastrophic war in Ukraine because the people making decisions in the West sincerely believed that Russia would collapse after a few weeks.
But it’s getting worse and worse. The Czech State Energy Transmission System issued a press release that lied about the causes of the recent power outage. When the causes are not acknowledged, it is difficult to take rational measures to increase the network’s resilience. How can a board member who claims there were no overflows approve infrastructure investments to manage them? We’re talking about investments of hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars, and by approving such a plan, a board member exposes themselves to the risk of criminal prosecution! (Due diligence, etc.). It is easier to start believing that photovoltaics and wind turbines do not cause grid instability. But how good can we expect the decisions of such people to be?