tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64028775763228255.post8917745975109419530..comments2023-10-15T11:30:30.750+02:00Comments on My Power Station South Africa: Deception, war, ambiguity, monopoly, government, answers.David Lipschitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16552017391450620612noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64028775763228255.post-71597709013982833112019-05-12T08:50:18.170+02:002019-05-12T08:50:18.170+02:00Surprise, when it happens to a government, is like...Surprise, when it happens to a government, is likely to be a complicated, diffuse, bureaucratic thing. It includes neglect of responsibility, but also responsibility so poorly defined or so ambiguously delegated that action gets lost. It includes gaps in intelligence that, like a string of pearls too precious to wear, is too sensitive to give to those who need it. It includes the alarm that fails to work, but also the alarm that has gone off so often it has been disconnected. It includes the unalert watchman, but also the one who knows he'll be chewed out by his superior if he gets higher authority out of bed. It includes the contingencies that occur to no ne, but also those that everyone assumes somebody else is taking care of (in Malcolm Gladwell's books re burglar alarms). It includes straight-forward procrastination (South Africa's curse, according to David Lipschitz: "waiting for the future, whilst blaming the past"), but also decisions protracted by internal disagreement. It includes, in addition, the inability of human beings to rise to the occasion until they are it is the occasion - which is usually too late. Thomas C Shelling, in the forward to "Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision" by Roberta Wohlstetter, 1962. (Notes in brackets by David Lipschitz.)David Lipschitzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16552017391450620612noreply@blogger.com