Hacker News Reader

Comment by mbg721 | Hacker News Reader

When you surround an anthill, you can just stomp on it, though. Corporate political correctness is built on the perceived certainty of being so far on the winning side of history that any other point of view isn't worth considering.

View on HN

I think I'm confused here.

I don't mean to be pedantic, but stomping an anthill wouldn't be 'winning' you would be pressed into your own retreat pretty quickly.

I believe the quote holds true, leave an out they will retreat or at least try. Cutoff all egress and it's a fight to the death.

Or was that what you were saying and I misunderstood? Or was I just wrong on all accounts?

Nah, I just had a bad day for metaphors. What I was getting at was that in corporate-conscience situations, the corporation doesn't perceive itself as even being in a battle; if they did, they wouldn't get involved, because it would be bad for business.

Progress in the long run may seem inevitable, but certainty of victory can be dangerous in the short to medium term. Whig history ignores the possibility of setbacks. Progressive democracies have fallen to authoritarian dictatorships in the past, and there will likely be more examples in the future. Hubris is not your friend.

Just a few days ago, there was a submission on HN about an Ancient Greek city where one side was so totally sure about its victory that it committed unspeakable crimes on the losing side - only to get whacked once a foreign military force allied with the losers arrived and the still surviving ones suddenly had a chance of revenge.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com