Many, if not most of us, suffer from ‘sunk cost fallacy’. Originally a business term, it means a cost that has already been incurred, and thus cannot be recovered. In the modern world it has taken on new meaning however, and we can see it in personal life, political opinion or even the vax.

It’s prevalent, if not dominant, in our ruling classes: political figures, from local parish councillors to MPs, even if they do not agree with the latest initiative, have too much invested, and would lose too much face, by about turning and admitting that maybe, just maybe, they have been wrong all along.

When they about turn, on whatever issue they may challenge, they are committing political harakiri having ‘erred’ from the party line. It results in future promotion prospects being burnt to a cinder and their brain washed brethren casting them out from the inner sanctum as they are seen as disloyal.

Watford Observer:

It's why our representatives, bar a few outliers, generally come across as submissive sheep with little to add of note, bar blindly following the party diktats in a modern-day version of disciplehood, with Boris, or Kier, or Ed, as the modern-day messiahs.

Now I have written on these pages previously about how, by questioning and having critical curiosity of the vaccine, you are not an ‘anti vaxxer’, per se. It’s all too black and white, whereas the truth is a peculiar shade of grey.

Watford Observer:

I am dubious about the vax, be it the length of time spent testing or its actual effectiveness (as is now being questioned collectively), despite having chosen to take three shots in the arm. Yet there are others who have been vocal about their refusal to inject this devil’s tool into their bodies who now, with loved ones having fallen around them, would like to change opinion but daren't, or can’t, as it would strike at the fibre of their very being. By admitting their ‘wrongdoing’, they would, in their eyes, be seen as a turncoat, and feel their opinion would never be trusted again and hence the face, the honour, would be lost, so, as much as it pains them, they are never going to publicly change their mind.

Opinions and stereotypes, by the same measure, can be silenced publicly, but never tamed. We all know folk who we would collectedly classify as ‘racists’, be they acquaintances or family members, who have a pre-ordained view that certain peoples are a certain thing. Footballers taking the knee, or the display of ‘kick it out’ banners at the football, do not work. Not because it shouldn’t, but because the ‘racist’ has too much invested in not being seen to change their opinion. All the collective pressure does is silence them, but the feelings still fester, and multiply, only finding a voice when they are in trusted company, whether that company wants to hear it or agrees with it or not.

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And then we have Brexit, the biggest, baddest, most incendiary event to ever split a people, bar war. I take no pleasure in saying I told you say, but I did, calling it, in print, as a 52/48% leave vote, despite much public mockery at my expense. Those silenced as ‘little Englanders’ were frustrated, and voted accordingly, as it was the only way they would ever be heard. We were fed a diet of how the country would collapse, that we would starve, and that civilisation would cease to be. Despite some predictions coming to fruition, the truth is that Covid has done more damage to all economies and cultures, including ours, than Brexit ever did, or could.

Watford Observer:

And those Remainers claiming the end was nigh, relentlessly, for month after month, were wrong, and yet they have responded not by admitting that fact, but by either staying schtum or even ramping up the rhetoric, no matter how fantastical, as they can’t, just can’t, admit that maybe they were wrong.

And so, we reap what we sow as we stumble into 2022. Cancel culture is the next tool in the armoury of the sunk cost fallacists as they refuse to allow alternate opinion, as we retreat further into our egos and demonise the few who have the gumption to openly admit that on this occasion, along with many, many others, yes, I was wrong.

  • Brett Ellis is a teacher