In the grand theater of history, there’s a recurring act that never fails to astonish — the rise and fall of civilizations, cities, companies, and individuals who believed they were exempt from the laws of nature, economics, and human behavior.
It’s a spectacle of hubris that’s as predictable as it is tragic, and yet, each new generation seems to think they’ll be the ones to cheat the system.
Consider the tale of the fall of the French Monarchy. On the eve of the French Revolution, King Louis XVI was famously dismissive of the financial crisis and widespread discontent brewing beneath his very nose.
He and his court continued their extravagant ways, blind to the common people sufferings and the boiling pot of revolution. The monarchy’s refusal to acknowledge and adapt to the clamor for change led to its violent overthrow..
Or consider the tale of the Titanic, deemed unsinkable by its creators. This marvel of engineering was a symbol of human ingenuity and arrogance.
The belief in its invincibility was so strong that it sailed with insufficient lifeboats. The iceberg it met on its maiden voyage was not an extraordinary threat but an inevitability in the cold waters of the North Atlantic.
The real disaster was the denial of this possibility.
Or consider the collapse of Nokia which was one #1 leader in mobile phones. The engineering and leadership Nokia possessed was something unheard of among many companies.
The belief Nokia is the change maker and will continue to define how phones will be built was so pervasive that it failed to identify the shift.
The Apple launching smart phone and its immediate acceptance by users should have made Nokia shift their stratehy. Samsung was quickly able to adapt to Android but Nokia lived in the
denial of the possibility that the newcomer could dethrone a leader like Nokia.
This pattern of denial isn’t confined to history books, lost businesses, or icy waters. It permeates our daily lives, influencing decisions in ways we often fail to recognize.
We drive faster than we should, believing accidents happen to others; we overleverage our investments, convinced the market will only rise because, well, it has for as long as we can remember.
And nowhere is this denial more dangerous and pervasive than in our collective response to changes happening to Bangalore city!
I recently saw this article from, Prof TV Ramachandra from the IISc Center For Ecological Sciences. I have read many of his earlier reports also and recent one is quite alarming least to say!
” Bengaluru’s urbanized area has expanded by a staggering 1055% since 1973, from a mere 8% to 93.3% in 2023. Consequently, there has been an 88% reduction in vegetation. Presently, Bengaluru has only 1.5 million trees for a population of 9.5 million, equating to just one tree for every seven individuals. This insufficient green cover fails to meet the daily respiratory carbon sequestration needs”
Prof TV Ramachandra
One can read the article here
Ofcourse, anyone who has lived in this city since 70s has experienced the level of change over the last 4 decades. There is no winter exists and now it is either just summer or rainy season.
With the explosion of the population and concretization, there has been rise in temperatures, loss of green cover, excessive pollution, and water scarcity.
Inspite all this, as a society, we continue to act like the owners of the Titanic, sailing full steam ahead into dangerous waters, assuming the lifeboats won’t be necessary.
Why do we do this or ignore the iceberg warnings?
Many cite this as due to ignorance, or our population doesn’t care.
But if we look in to the psychological aspect of this denial, this puzzling disconnect isn’t merely a case of ignorance;
Instead, it is a complex interplay of psychology, social dynamics, and information processing.
At the heart of this denial is the cognitive biases deeply embedded in human nature.
It is programmed in human mind to perceive threats and take immediate action. But for this the threat seems to one of immediacy.
So, we are wired for immediacy — immediate rewards, immediate dangers.
The time factor of threat makes a big difference in taking action. A somewhat uncertain threat that might occur in the future doesn’t motivate one to take action vis-a-vis a threat that is certain now!
The phenomenon is called “psychological distance.”
A city that has become concrete jungle, with pollution rising and water scarcity becoming acute, even if it’s catastrophic, often fails to trigger our alarms as it is a sort of a threat that’s abstract and distant,
The effects of any change to our city is often perceived as remote — affecting other people, or future generations — which diminishes the urgency in people’s minds.
It’s the same reason a smoker might light up another cigarette while fully aware of the health risks. The consequences are not immediate enough to be real.
Another contributor is the “confirmation bias,” where individuals favor information that confirms their pre-existing beliefs.
In our era of information bubbles, it’s easier than ever to encounter only affirming views.
This echo chamber effect reinforces existing attitudes, making the acceptance of contrary evidence difficult.
And self interested parties such as real estate, politicians who have vested interests join in spreading information that downplays the situation severity or even counter the evidence.
I had a walking community that included real estate businessmen. Many in this community weren’t keen to discuss the long-term impacts of the green cover loss etc, because of their economic interests!
Moreover, acknowledging the threat of climate change demands a confrontation with our lifestyle choices — the water we consume, the waste we produce, the commute choices we need to make, very foundations of our economies and lifestyles.
So, in a way when faced with an issue as colossal as change that involves so many people with governments, businesses, individual groups, the society at large may resort to denial as a defense mechanism, way to avoid the anxiety that comes with acknowledging such a seemingly too big to fix challenge.
But here’s where we can draw lessons from the past.
Just as the Titanic tragedy led to new regulations on lifeboats, and the economic crisis that India faced in 1991 reshaped by opening our economy and liberalizing for free capital, we have the opportunity to change course before it’s too late to save our cities be in Bangalore or Delhi which suffers highest pollution!.
History is not just a record of past failures but a guidebook for avoiding future ones.
Taking action to save our cities requires us to shift our perspective — to see beyond the immediate and at individual level.
It demands a recognition that we are all passengers on a ship called Earth, and there are no lifeboats for us to escape to.
The good news is, unlike the Titanic, our story isn’t written yet. We have the knowledge and the technology to avoid the iceberg.
What’s needed now is the collective will to act. It’s time to steer the ship in a new direction, not with fear but with resolve, not alone but together.
Now the way to deal relies on effective communication that goes beyond presenting the data or evidences.
To sway the politicians, people in power, the issue at hand needs to made personally relevant and emotionally compelling.
Narratives that connect individual actions to positive outcomes, that showcase immediate and local benefits of climate action, can bridge the psychological gap.
Finally, tackling denial may require empowering individuals, and giving them the tools and pathways to make a difference.
People are more likely to engage in planting trees, wastewater treatment, and lake restoration action if they feel their contributions are meaningful.
In conclusion, the battle for saving cities like Bangalore isn’t just a battle for evidence and data; it’s a battle for hearts and minds.
Understanding the roots of denial is the first step in crafting communication strategies that can resonate more deeply and motivate the much-needed change in behavior and policy.
As Morgan Housel the author of best selling Psychology of Money says,
“The most powerful lessons are those learned the hard way. But the beauty of history is that we don’t have to repeat the mistakes of the past. We can choose a different ending to our story.”
Let’s make it one worth telling.
