The cover-up instinct

I believe that Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK. I think the moon landings took place as billed. And Diana’s car crashed into a pillar in the Pont de l’Alma without the assistance of the Duke of Edinburgh.

In the last case, I am particularly disinclined to believe in conspiracy theories since, prior to the accident, I had ridden through the tunnel in a taxi several times, the first when I was 11 years old. Each time I had the same thought: ‘God, this is a stupid design for a tunnel.’ It contains a long series of square concrete pillars along the central reservation, separated from the road only by a couple of feet and a feeble kerb. It is now 15 years since it saw the most famous car crash in history, yet no guard-rails have been installed. The real scandal this reveals is the reluctance of people to do something obvious (like installing guard-rails) when by doing so you might admit that you were wrong in the first place.

So while I don’t give much credence to conspiracy theories, I am always very ready to believe in cover-ups or face-saving exercises. The desire to contrive evil plans is comparatively rare; however, the urge to go to insane lengths to try to avoid regret or embarrassment seems to be innate and universal.

Watching Michael Portillo go round Greece offering people the choice between the drachma and the euro, one could not help coming to the conclusion that the Greek attachment to the euro was largely a question of identity and self-esteem.

And reading Daniel Kahneman’s book Thinking Fast and Slow, it becomes apparent that what are often mistakenly seen as relatively trivial human emotions (such as embarrassment, regret or loss of face) are worthy of greater study.