STATES OF EMERGENCY - Patrick Lagadec

5. Getting disentangled from failure's briarpatchNo innovative recommendation can be heard, let alone followed, unless theprofound roadblocks built into mentalities are broken down. We haveencountered these hindrances at all stages of crisis management: before anyaccident takes place, at the moment the event strikes, and in the long periodduring which the crisis develops. It is these issues, more than any specificintervention tactics, that must make up the core of the training programs thatare called for today and for which there is a strong demand. We must neverlose sight of the fact that the key lies in mental dispositions and in habit -these command everything else.1. Overcoming fearsAugsburg, its ramparts, its guards, and its fears:"In the 16th century, it wasn't easy to enter Augsburg at night. The French philosopherMontaigne, who visited the city in 1580, marvelled at the "false gate" with two guardsused to filter travellers arriving after nightfall (...). These were precautions that revealeda singular climate of insecurity: four successive heavy gates, a bridge over a moat, adrawbridge, and an iron grid were not considered too much to protect this city of60,000 - at the time the most populous and richest in Germany - from any surprises.In a country that was prey to religious quarrels, with the Turk roaming at the borders ofthe empire, any stranger was suspicious, especially at night. At the same time, therewere worries about the commoner, whose emotions were unpredictable and dangerous.So it was arranged that he should never notice the absence of the soldiers usuallystationed under the complicated system of the false gate. Inside this gate, the latestadvances of German metallurgy had been installed; thanks to them, a highly covetedcity managed, if not to thrust fear completely outside its walls, then at least to weaken itsufficiently to be able to live with it.The clever mechanisms that once protected the inhabitants of Augsburg have a symbolicvalue. Not only individuals taken one by one, but also groups and even civilizations areengaged in a permanent dialogue with fear" (1).