In April, 1961, one day after its failure, President Kennedy openly took full responsibility for the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion. Your readers may want to consider that as an example of what you have in mind, Rex. And viewing it in context is revealing. Just before the Bay of Pigs invasion, on 12 April, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had become the first person to orbit the Earth. Combined, those two developments geatly reinforced the belief that the United States was being clobbered by the "communist menace." While popular, Alan Shepherd's subsequent suborbital Mercury spaceflight on 05 May, the first American to go into space, paled in comparison to the Gagarin stunt. So, twenty days after that, in an attempt to quell all the criticism about his administration's fumbling, Kennedy addressed Congress, proposing that the nation send a human to the Moon and back "before this decade is out," diverting attention away from the troubling present moment and shifting focus to a distant prize. So, at least sometimes, owning up to an error may precipitate a positive alternative outcome on some future initiative that's proposed to help make amends for the mistake. Not that spending all that money to enable Neil Armstrong's Moon walk made a whole lot of sense, mind you, but it WAS popular, and it helped to save JFK's bacon, and it gave the "military industrial complex" that Eisenhower feared an alternative way to stay on the federal gravy train without making weapons. Tom Carroll
Political discourse, such as it is, exists primarily within echo chambers. Terrible places for contrition, because who wants to hear an echo of his or her own shortcomings?
In April, 1961, one day after its failure, President Kennedy openly took full responsibility for the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion. Your readers may want to consider that as an example of what you have in mind, Rex. And viewing it in context is revealing. Just before the Bay of Pigs invasion, on 12 April, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had become the first person to orbit the Earth. Combined, those two developments geatly reinforced the belief that the United States was being clobbered by the "communist menace." While popular, Alan Shepherd's subsequent suborbital Mercury spaceflight on 05 May, the first American to go into space, paled in comparison to the Gagarin stunt. So, twenty days after that, in an attempt to quell all the criticism about his administration's fumbling, Kennedy addressed Congress, proposing that the nation send a human to the Moon and back "before this decade is out," diverting attention away from the troubling present moment and shifting focus to a distant prize. So, at least sometimes, owning up to an error may precipitate a positive alternative outcome on some future initiative that's proposed to help make amends for the mistake. Not that spending all that money to enable Neil Armstrong's Moon walk made a whole lot of sense, mind you, but it WAS popular, and it helped to save JFK's bacon, and it gave the "military industrial complex" that Eisenhower feared an alternative way to stay on the federal gravy train without making weapons. Tom Carroll
Another great piece, Rex.
Political discourse, such as it is, exists primarily within echo chambers. Terrible places for contrition, because who wants to hear an echo of his or her own shortcomings?