From Alex Barker : Cognitive dissonance
Dear Myles,
I have taken a break from football this season – I haven’t been to any games.
I just couldn’t face groundhog season any more.
Hence fewer emails from me. However, I keep up with the news. Did you see this?
A plainer example of cognitive dissonance from the ‘Specialist in Masochism’ you could not expect to see.
Specialist in self-delusion would be more appropriate.
“I am focused on me, getting to the next level, trying to improve. I think competent managers always try to improve and are always trying to see what you can do better and reinvent yourself.”
“It is very demanding but, as well, very interesting if you really face the challenge by accepting the reality, in an objective way, of what you have to do to get better.”
How does he honestly square that with doing exactly the same things for the last ten years and failing in exactly the same way every time. The yawning gap between his actions and his self image is colossal.
The only explanation, I can come up with is one I think you suggested when you pointed out how shell- shocked his teams often are when reality intruded and they got hammered in the major games and how long it takes them to recover mentally.
If, as the Soviets found, you operate in a system built on lies and propaganda, where no one can be honest or objective, everyone ultimately loses the ability to distinguish between reality and fantasy and you have to believe the Orwellian pronouncements that come out of the mouths of authority without question because you no longer have any grasp of reality.
I think, on some level, that is what has happened at our club – manifested most obviously in this total mental breakdown at the manager level.
Still, as long as the money keeps pouring in, nobody on the board will care.
Fortunately, it’s a great 6 Nations this year! I hope you’re enjoying it.
Myles says:
I read a lot at weekends, so my Six Nations viewing has been intermittent.
Funnily enough, I watched the Michael Radford-directed film of Nineteen Eighty-four five nights ago.
HAD NEVER SEEN IT.
Wasn’t me who pointed out how shell-shocked the team always is when they get thrashed.
But it’s true.
Today I’m having a fabulous Saturday morning (so far) and, after listening to a song link sent by a London-based Gooner and after that I ended up loving this great Bob Dylan cover by an underrated American singer I wish I’d seen live.