The Law Says One Thing. Reality Rewards Another

"Historically a white elephant was a gift so expensive and useless that the recipient could not get rid of it - a burden maintained out of embarrassment rather than logic. The phrase has migrated. Today it refers to issues that are uncomfortable to talk about, and hence easier to shove underneath the verbal table than to debate and eliminate. It is a sadly fitting label for entire political architectures: systems of concentrated privilege that operate in full public view; topics that are documented by international bodies, reported by mainstream media, and debated in parliaments - and yet persist without serious correction."

"Fossil fuel subsidies and artificial intelligence lobbying are among today's most instructive white elephants. They share a political grammar: a handful of firms become systemically important; restraint gets framed as national weakness; costs are smoothly offloaded onto citizens, workers, and ecosystems. Little of this is hidden. Most of it is condoned. By us."

"Condoning the offensive action of some is an act that requires the tacit acceptance of many. In the context of today's hybrid world, a place in rapid planetary decline, it is as important to understand why ordinary people let costly absurdities stand, as is cataloguing the absurdities themselves. Our mind is not well-suited to trillion-dollar abstractions. It gravitates toward visible threats, immediate rewards, and familiar arrangements."

"Status quo bias refers to our tendency to favour existing systems; we register the sting of perceived loss roughly twice as sharply as the pleasure of equivalent gain - loss aversion strikes. Industries that profit from inaction have studied both. Every reform gets framed as a threat; every subsidy, a lifeline; every regulation, a job killer. The framing works because our evolutionary wiring renders us inclined toward it. Public condoning is the predictable output of cognitive tendencies being deliberately triggered."

A white elephant is now used for uncomfortable issues that are easier to hide than to debate and eliminate. Fossil fuel subsidies and artificial intelligence lobbying are presented as modern examples that follow a shared political pattern: a small number of firms become systemically important, restraint is portrayed as national weakness, and costs are shifted onto citizens, workers, and ecosystems. Much of this behavior is not hidden and is largely accepted. Condoning harmful actions requires tacit acceptance by many. People may tolerate costly absurdities due to cognitive limits and biases, including status quo bias and loss aversion. Industries that benefit from inaction use framing to make reforms seem threatening, subsidies seem necessary, and regulations seem like job killers.

Read at Psychology Today