In the aftermath of the Cheating Incident, I began the deepest soul-searching of my life.

There was no obvious Realistic explanation for my downfall.  In my heart I knew I had taken every conceivable step to avoid being caught.  My precautions would have worked had it not been for a near-impossible case of Bad Luck.  My classmate Bob had returned to the room to retrieve his missing textbook at the worst possible moment.  Bob had at most a 45-second window of opportunity to catch me.  My plan was to open the book, take a quick glance to refresh my memory on the German authors, close the book.  45 seconds at most.  Adding to the mystery, why didn't I hear Bob coming?  I had heard Mrs. Anderson when she came upstairs to hand me my test, so why didn't I hear Buffalo Bob as he thundered up the steps?

To me, there were only two explanations for Bob's unexpected appearance.  One was my 'Lightning Strikes' Bad Luck theory and the other was my 'Invisible Man' whisper theory.  The odds of being hit by lightning are remote and yet we hear of people who get struck.  In other words, accidents happen.  Maybe Bob's discovery was a Bad Luck accident.

Or maybe the Invisible Man made Bob forget his book, then whispered to him to go get it at the right time.  The Invisible Man also made sure I did not begin cheating until Bob was ready to enter the room.  Far-fetched indeed.  However, I was with Sherlock Holmes on this one.

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

A Coincidence is a curious thing.  Sometimes the odds are high that a Coincidence might occur, sometimes low.  It is one thing to be struck by Lightning on a clear day.  It is another thing to be struck by Lightning while playing golf in a thunderstorm.  Given the kind of precautions I had taken, Bob's discovery felt like Lightning had struck on a clear day.  This was a clear violation of the laws of Probability.  Unwilling to accept Bob's sudden appearance had happened by accident, I concluded this Coincidence was a Fated event.

Let me make an important point.  If Bob's sudden appearance was a random, isolated incident, I could have accepted that odd things do happen from time to time and stopped there.  However, as we shall see, three more incidents JUST AS WEIRD hit me in the ensuing months.  At some point, the odds just kept getting more and more remote that there were logical explanations for these events.

My decision that Fate was present was bolstered by the return of my Common Sense.  First I suddenly became aware that I had been a complete Idiot to attempt this in the first place.  Second, I asked myself what had come over me to lose my mind.  Never before in my life had I done anything even remotely this stupid.  I once cut my eye out with a knife, but I was five years old.  Yes, that was exceedingly stupid, but I forgave myself due to my age.  However I could not forgive myself for this Cheating incident.  This time I was old enough to know better.  Plagued by guilt, I asked myself where this Very Bad Idea originated from in the first place.  Where do senseless, self-destructive decisions come from?  A girl sees a handbag and decides to take it on the spur of the moment.  I get the idea to cheat on a limited portion of a German test.  Not for a moment do either of us think we will be caught.  That element of our common sense seems to have completely disappeared.  Why?  What happened to our common sense? 

Edgar Allan Poe, one of America's greatest writers, was obsessed by his self-admitted tendency to deliberately do things that would end up hurting him.  Poe even had a name for it.  He called it 'Perverseness'. 

"Perverseness is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart.  It is one of the indivisible primary faculties, or sentiments, which give direction to the character of man.  Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or a silly action, for no other reason than because he knows he should not?”   

Was it Perverseness that got me into trouble?  Well, I suppose so.  I have a rebellious side that likes to cut corners when I am in a bad mood.  But I also have Common Sense.  Cheating had been an act of Colossal Misjudgment.  What bothered me was the utter pointlessness of what I did.  Even if I succeeded, what exactly did I hope to accomplish?  If I got away with it, no one would know a thing.  But if I failed...  Uh, tell me again why I am doing this?  There's an old saying, Great Risk leads to Great Reward.   As I said previously, I made 95 on the test.  If I had not cheated, the worst I would have done was 85.  In other words, I risked my entire academic reputation for 10 points on a meaningless test.  Given that I risked everything for no possible gain whatsoever, Cheating had been a Very Bad Idea.  Furthermore, why did Mr. Salls choose to look the other way?  That just added to the weirdness of this incident.

It is one thing to make an impulsive decision, but that was not the case here.  Given how much thought I had given to how to get away with this Cheating idea, I assumed I had every angle covered.  Feeling invulnerable, gee, what the heck, I'll go through with it.  How could I have anticipated the surprise arrival of a classmate at the exact moment to catch me?  If someone had been watching me through a window, their timing could not have been any better than Bob's.  There was no window in the door.  Nor was there any way save a ladder to peep in through the second-story windows.  Given the long odds against this occurrence, I simply could not dismiss my Bad Luck as some random fluke of nature.  Someone had deliberately guided Bob to my room, I was sure of it.  If so, I assumed some sort of telepathic connection between Bob and my Invisible Nemesis had taken place. 

If Bob was susceptible to a telepathic command, then I was too.  So I asked myself again where this Very Bad Idea had come from.  Was it my very own utter stupidity that had gotten me into this mess???   Or did some Invisible Being persuade me to do this by tricking me into thinking this was my own idea?  The ensuing debate led me to ask the question that would bother me my entire life. 

Why do otherwise intelligent people sometimes do incredibly stupid things? 

Back when I cheated on the German test, Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling were well in the future.   However, when Ms. Rowling wrote that Humans have 'a knack for choosing precisely the things that are worst for them', I am fairly certain she had me in mind.  Who else could it be?

Well, now that I think of it, Ms. Rowling might have been thinking about Eve and the Apple tree.  According to what Moses wrote in Genesis, Eve was the first human to have a Very Bad Idea.  Ms. Rowling might say that Eve had a knack for choosing precisely the thing that was worst for her.  Assuming Eve is the mother of mankind, I say blame my Very Bad Idea on Eve.  Thanks to her, Disobedience has been hard-wired into the DNA of mankind ever since.  So there is my alibi! 

Ignoring my Biblical jest, over the centuries people have tried to understand why intelligent people make colossal errors of judgment.  One need look no farther than the Trojan Horse.  Talk about stupid!  How about Napoleon invading Russia just in time to see the snow fall?  Or Hitler making the identical mistake?  Or General Lee sending George Pickett straight into the Yankee defense at Gettysburg?  Or Churchill sending troops into a deadly ambush at Gallipoli? 

And then of course we have poor Captain Smith, poster boy for colossal lapse of judgment.  Picture Captain Smith of the Titanic as his ship approaches an ice field.  There are dozens of dangerous icebergs hidden by the black of night.  No one in their right mind would send an unwieldy ship through a treacherous obstacle course without visibility.  Indeed, just 10 miles away, the Californian has anchored for the night because its captain understood this was the sensible thing to do.  But no, Captain Smith, despite 50 years of maritime experience, despite being responsible for the lives of 2,500 passengers, decided to drive his ship straight into danger at full speed with no visibility.  The decision was so bad it seems suicidal in hindsight. 

As I will later show, Captain Smith was considered highly competent prior to his mistake.  Churchill was voted the greatest man in British history.  Napoleon was a military genius.  Until Gettysburg, General Lee ran circles around the generals of the North.  Despite their brilliance, each man made the worst decision of his life, the kind of decision that would haunt them forever after.  How do we explain senseless, highly destructive decisions made by men who should have known better?  That is a question people have been asking since the dawn of time.  We accept that normal people like you and me do dumb things, but one would think our best and brightest would be immune.  Apparently that is not the case.  Why do smart people do dumb things? 

In the early 1930s, physicist Albert Einstein, a pacifist at heart, was alarmed by the militarization of Nazi Germany.  Unable to understand what seemed to be an innate tendency for destruction in humans, Einstein wrote to Sigmund Freud to ask his thoughts on how further war might be prevented.  In response, Freud wrote that 'Thanatos', a death instinct, “is at work in every living creature and is striving to bring it to ruin and to reduce life to its original condition of inanimate matter.”

Sigmund Freud had a lot to say about destructive behavior.  To Freud, Thanatos was a way to relieve Unconscious psychological pressure.  Freud wrote that patients in psychoanalysis tended to 'Act Out' their conflicts in harmful ways rather than deal with them in a constructive way.

Many students of human nature have since agreed with Freud.  Angry kids who have no way to express their anger to powerful authority figures often turn their anger back on themselves.  By rebelling, they do things to hurt themselves.  Drug abuse, drinking, overeating, smoking, shoplifting, bullying, graffiti, cheating, promiscuity, the list goes on and on. 

Over time, the consensus explanation is that self-destructive behavior is caused by anger and feelings of helplessness.  If this tension cannot be released in a healthy way, it damages the individual's judgment and becomes expressed in self-harming ways instead. 

Personally, I think the 'Acting Out' explanation makes a lot of sense.  There is no doubt about it, when I am angry, I sometimes do stupid things.  Anger makes me impatient, less cautious, more aggressive.  So, like I said, if the Cheating Episode had remained an isolated event, I could have accepted Freud's diagnosis and left it at that.  My guess is that Mr. Salls interpreted my behavior in this way.  Since he knew me well from three years as my German teacher, he chose to give me the benefit of the doubt.  Thank goodness!

However, despite my unexpected reprieve, I was unable to walk away from the issue for the specific reason that it took a Supernatural Event to catch me in act.  Take for example a detective asked to evaluate a likely suicide.  He spots something peculiar that causes him to take a second look.  That was me in a nutshell.  The presence of an apparent Supernatural Event caused me to go past the obvious explanation of Acting Out.  I still wanted to know why my Common Sense deserted me when I needed it.

There is Ordinary Stupidity and Colossal Stupidity.  Yes, like a lot of people, I break rules from time to time.  Fortunately, my better judgment always prevents me from going too far.  Here is an example of Ordinary Stupidity.  I dislike coming to a complete halt at stop signs when it is 2 am in the morning.  Due to the absence of traffic, I can see there is no danger.  Rather than brake, I slow down, roll past the sign, then pick up speed again.   If I get caught, I know there will be consequences, but, since I can afford to pay the fine, I do not consider this to be 'Self-destructive' behavior, but rather a low-risk dumb idea.  That is my idea of Perverseness... a victimless crime.

And then there is Colossal Stupidity.  Cheating on a German test was an entirely different thing because the punishment would have devastated any chance at a college scholarship.  I knew this the moment I was caught, so why didn't I know this beforehand?  Where did the flaw in my vaunted logic occur?  I suppose Sigmund Freud would have had the answer.  Freud would have crossed his arms and said, "Well, young man, aren't you overlooking something?  It was your UNCONSCIOUS that caused you to take this risky and quite self-destructive chance."

Freud was very fond of the Unconscious.  In his opinion, the Unconscious was the explanation for all sorts of senseless behavior.  Problem A was caused by a thwarted sex drive, Problem B was caused by Thanatos, the so-called death instinct, Problem C was caused by Guilt.  Give the guy some credit.  Freud had some wildly creative explanations including a Complex for every occasion.  Oedipal Complex, Electra Complex, Inferiority Complex, Adonis Complex, Martyr Complex, and let's not forget his rather bizarre Madonna-Whore Complex.  It is no accident the term 'Freudian Complex' became part of everyone's vocabulary. 

The real thorn in Freud's side was Carl Jung and his mystical 'Synchronicity' mumbo jumbo.  Jung had a long relationship with Sigmund Freud.  They were contemporaries who even collaborated on occasion.  However, Jung's fascination with the Supernatural drove a giant wedge between the men.  At one point Freud shook his head and told Jung he was completely off his rocker.  Stung by Freud's criticism that his theories were pseudoscience nonsense, Jung withdrew to follow his own path.  While Freud focused on analytical explanations for human behavior, Jung's preoccupation with the Supernatural led him in a much different direction.  Both men would analyze the same behavior and reach totally different conclusions.  Comparing the two men, from where I stood Psychology was no different than Religion.  In Religion, no one really knows what God thinks, but everyone loves to argue about it.  Psychology is the same way.  Since no one really knows what makes a person tick, they argue a lot.  Some like Freud's explanations better, some like Jung better.  But here's the deal.  How did Freud intend to explain Bob's Supernatural appearance at the worst possible moment?   Advantage to Carl Jung. 

Although Freud's Acting Out argument made a lot of sense, try as I might, I could not overlook Bob's magical appearance at the perfect moment to ruin my life.  That aspect threw my thinking directly in line with my Invisible Man whisper theory.  Now I suspected the Invisible Man had placed the Very Bad Idea in my mind as well.  If the Invisible Man could persuade Bob to burst into the room at the exact instant to catch me, then the Invisible Man could just as easily have persuaded me to cheat in the first place.  This is when I began to feel 'Set-Up' to be the patsy here.  The Invisible Man had persuaded me to cheat, then called the cops to catch me in the act.

In other words, I believed that someone had deliberately rendered me STUPID in order to take the fall.  To bolster my argument, I had five previous incidents that were also suspected Blind Spots. 

•  My mother's unforgivable decision to let my dog Terry loose in a hurricane.
•  My mother's Blue Christmas madness that almost got us killed.
•  My mother's inexplicable delay before taking me to the dermatologist
•  My mother's failure to recall my child support ended on my 18th birthday.
•  My failure to realize state tuition was a fraction of private college tuition.

However, there was one problem.  I could not think of a single person to agree with my Whisper Theory.  Carl Jung had spoken about Coincidence, but to my knowledge he never suggested Leprechauns, Angels, or Invisible Men went around making people Blind at key moments.  In fact, it took 50 years to find someone with thinking parallel to mine.  By chance, in 2018 I ran across J.K. Rowling's 2008 Harvard Commencement Speech on the Internet.  Curious, I read her entire speech.  I was very impressed.

One line in particular stopped me in my tracks. 

'Talent and intelligence have never inoculated anyone against the Caprice of the Fates.'

Hmm, that sounded like something I would say.  I never had time for Harry Potter at the height of his popularity.  I was too busy running my dance studio.  However, in retirement, I had the free time to read the novels.  I was deeply amused to discover that Ms. Rowling divided her Harry Potter fantasy world into Wizards who hide their powers and Muggles who are normal humans.  The Muggles have no idea a Magic World exists side by side with what they refer to as 'Reality'.  Furthermore, there was a general understanding in the Wizard World that Normal Humans are not strong enough to handle the truth.  This caused a serious problem because Wizards frequently lost control of their Magic right in the midst of startled Muggles.  Observing an act that broke the Rules of Reality, a Muggle had no idea what just happened, but was intensely curious for an explanation.  Oh no!  We can't have Muggles questioning Reality! 

Imagine my delight to read that Wizards had the power to affect the minds of the Muggles.  Ms. Rowling made it perfectly clear that Wizards used mind modification whenever necessary.  The Memory Charm (Obliviate), also known as the Forgetfulness Charm, could be used to erase specific memories from an individual's mind.  A different charm would create false memories.

As an example, in Goblet of Fire, Chapter 10, Mr. Roberts and his family were seized by Death Eaters who levitated them into the air.  The defenseless family were contorted  into grotesque shapes and spun mercilessly above the ground.  Mr. Weasley, a Wizard, saw what happened and decided it was necessary to erase the terrible memories of the Death Eater attack.

Mr. Weasley woke Harry Potter and his friends after only a few hours of sleep.  He used Magic to pack up the tents and they left the campsite as quickly as possible, passing poor Mr. Roberts at the door of his cottage.  Mr. Roberts had a strange, dazed look about him as he waved them off with a vague 'Merry Christmas'. 

"Mr. Roberts will be all right," said Mr. Weasley quietly as they marched off onto the moor.  "Sometimes when a person's memory is modified it makes him a bit disoriented for a while and that was a big thing we had to make him forget."  

Mind Control was a major feature in the Harry Potter series.  The incident with Mr. Roberts was one of many examples where a Wizard erased a Muggle's Memory immediately after something went wrong lest the existence of the Wizard World became common knowledge. 

The only difference between Ms. Rowling's Wizard World and my so-called Invisible Men is that my memory of Bob catching me in the act did not get erased.  Permitted to hang onto my memory as well as my curiosity, I listed the Cheating Incident as Supernatural Event #20.  Nor did the Magic stop there.  The total on my List will eventually surpass 100. 

RICK ARCHER'S LIST OF SUSPECTED SUPERNATURAL EVENTS
 

Serious

FATE

So what did J.K. Rowling have to say about Fate?  On this subject, I found very little other than two intriguing hints.  By stating that Intelligence fails to inoculate "against the Caprice of the Fates", I assumed she agreed with me that Very Bright People are capable of doing Very Stupid Things. 

Ms. Rowling's second quote, "Humans have a knack for choosing precisely those things which are worst for them," suggested she too has observed baffling examples of Senseless Stupidity in people who should have known better. 

However, nowhere in her books does Ms. Rowling suggest Wizards are assigned the task of making people Blind as a way to cause a Destiny-altering mistake.  In private she might agree with me, but more likely Ms. Rowling is too smart to open that controversial door.  "Oh no, Rick, you bring it up, be my guest."

This Coincidence was so blatant I wondered if I had been handed this eye-opening event for a purpose.  As a result, the Cheating Episode set my mind to thinking in a completely new way about how the World works.  And, just in case I was still on the fence with these ideas, I was hit with four more rat-a-tat Supernatural Events in a six month span.  Reeling from this determined assault on my previous sense of Reality, I interpreted the unusual events of my life in a startling new way. 

I did not think much about God in those days.  I was far too focused on my own problems.  However, that changed in a hurry thanks to Bob.  The more I thought about it, the more convinced I became that God had been responsible for springing this trap.  I trembled at the implications of this wild possibility.  Why in the world would God trip me up?  I thought God was supposed to be my friend!   Whatever happened to "Lead me not into Temptation but deliver me from Evil"?  So much for the Lord's Prayer.  Not only had God failed to deliver me from Evil, more likely He led me straight into it. 

But then my Headmaster looked the other way.  That was bizarre!  Was Mr. Salls yet another victim of the Invisible Whisper?  It felt like God wanted to startle me, but did not intend to punish me.  Maybe God was just trying to get my attention.

Fortunately, the ensuing events brought things into sharper focus.  Faced with five Supernatural Events in one year, I decided God had deliberately opened my eyes.  Now that God had my full attention, I decided it was my duty to investigate the mysteries of life.  In other words, getting caught cheating on a German test was the pivotal moment that started me on the path to the Gypsy Prophecy. 

FURTHER THOUGHTS ON THE THEORY OF COSMIC BLINDNESS

 We all have a pretty good idea of what we are capable of.  That includes both good and bad.  Based on prior experience, I had a firm grasp of my Best and Worst so far.  Then one day I did something so totally Stupid it surpassed my previous High Water Mark by a wide margin.  In other words, when I cheated on the German test, I exceeded my Limitations. 

It wasn't just that I set a new mark, I OBLITERATED my previous standard.  Afterwards, I was so stupefied by the extreme nature of my mistake, I obsessed about it endlessly.  Wracked with guilt, I could not get the mistake out of my mind. 

Most people would have attributed my mistake to immaturity and the intense psychological pressure I was under (and rightly so).  However, in my case, the presence of Bob's sudden appearance to catch me red-handed led me to consider a much different possibility.  That was my Isaac Newton moment, the equivalent of an apple hitting me on the head.  The presence of an absurdly Bad Idea, Bob's uncanny appearance, and Mr. Salls' mysterious pardon gave me three reasons to wonder if I had been the victim of a scenario created by a Higher Power. 

Here I was, ordinarily a cautious, sensible person who analyzed every move I made to the nth degree.  And yet no matter how carefully I approached my life, I had failed miserably in the clutch.  Determined to understand what could have possibly caused me to lose my mind, I came up with a wild theory.  Cosmic Blindness suggests that in EXTREME cases of poor judgment, a Higher Power may have been involved.  For reasons of Fate, perhaps our better judgment can be temporarily short-circuited.

To be sure, Cosmic Blindness is a far-fetched concept.  However I seriously doubt I am the first person to suggest this controversial idea.  When I read that Mark Twain had said, "There are many scapegoats for our sins, but the most popular is Providence," I was reminded of the oldest excuse in the world, "The Devil made me do it." 

Although I don't believe in the Devil, I will definitely agree that Evil exists in great quantities.  A phrase like 'The Devil made me do it' lingers on because many people besides me have had the eerie feeling they were victim of forces beyond their control.  I cannot speak for anyone else, but in my case I have long been unwilling to accept full responsibility for my preposterous Cheating mistake.  Mind you, in the eyes of society I have no choice but accept full responsibility for my actions.  If Mr. Salls had chosen to punish me, I would not have defended myself.  Yes, I did the crime, so I will do the time.  However, in the privacy of my thoughts I reserve the right to ask if a Higher Power set me up for failure.  And I think my Readers should examine their own mistakes and ask the same question. 

Does Cosmic Blindness exist?  In my heart, I think so.  That said, I could be wrong and do not mind admitting it.  However, on the off-chance I have guessed correctly, the question must be raised.  If Cosmic Blindness is a part of life, it will alter the way we view our own mistakes.  In particular I hope we become more forgiving of our own worst mistake and that of others as well. 

How the theory of Cosmic Blindness withstands the test of time remains to be seen, but let's give it a fair chance.  And now let's have some fun.  Let's pretend I am right and go back through time to reinterpret some of History's greatest blunders. 

COSMIC BLINDNESS THROUGH THE LENS OF MYTHOLOGY:

OEDIPUS, KING OF THEBES

The ancient Greeks were convinced their God and Goddesses interfered with their lives.  Indeed, every chapter of the Iliad describes how the Gods treated the Trojan War as their own little playground.  Due to their sense of helplessness at the whims of the Gods, the Greeks were understandably obsessed with Fate.  Consequently the legend of Oedipus provoked a great deal of analysis.  Two schools of thought emerged:  Aristotle's Fatal Flaw versus Sophocles' Blindness. 

"Hamartia" is a Greek term for Fatal Flaw.  The concept was made famous by Aristotle in Poetics, a treatise concerned with the nature of Tragedy.  Aristotle raised the possibility that some people are born with a Fatal Flaw character trait.   Aristotle believed certain people who were given great blessings also possessed a hero's tragic flaw.  This flaw would one day lead to errors culminating in downfall. 

However, Sophocles saw things differently.  Thanks to his brilliant play Oedipus Rex, 'Sophoclean Blindness' became a term which refers to the tension between human freedom and divine destiny.  In the opinion of Sophocles, Oedipus was a victim of cruel Fate.  Due to Blindness concerning the details of his birth, no amount of foresight or preemptive action could remedy the outcome as predicted by Prophecy.  Therefore, according to Sophocles, Oedipus bore no responsibility for his mistakes.  As such, Oedipus should not have inflicted such a terrible punishment on himself.  Yes, Oedipus had every right to feel an inevitable sense of regret, but it was a mistake to feel Guilt.  Let go of the Guilt and lead a good life in memory of ones lost.  In other words, the real tragedy here was the pain Oedipus inflicted upon himself. 

COSMIC BLINDNESS THROUGH THE LENS OF MYTHOLOGY:

PARIS, PRINCE OF TROY

Perhaps some people of Privilege feel entitled to do whatever they wish.  Blessed by Fate, they get a little too preoccupied with their own importance. 

In 1870 Frank Calvert and Heinrich Schliemann excavated a suspicious hill in western Turkey.  Imagine their shock to realize they had just uncovered the so-called mythical city of Troy.  Unfortunately, we have no idea whether the fantastic stories of the Trojan War depicted in Homer's Iliad are true, but they sure are interesting. 

The ancient Greeks were onto something when they came up with the word 'Hubris'.  Observing one senseless mistake after another, the Greeks blamed incomprehensible mistakes on a dangerous sense of over-confidence.  Their word  was Hubris, excessive pride, an unjustified favorable opinion of one's own abilities.  If you claim you are the best, then you have to prove it.  Otherwise Hubris can lead to embarrassment and humiliation.  Hubris is another way of saying "A man's gotta know his Limitations." 

Some men will overestimate their own talent if the temptation is too great.  In the case of Paris, Prince of Troy, he succumbed to overwhelming temptation of possessing the most beautiful woman in the world.  This wasn't the first time Beauty turned a man's eye to his destruction, but it is the most famous.  History shows Passion has a way of making men stupid.  In addition, Paris was blinded by Aphrodite's promise to help him obtain Helen if he would vote for her in a Beauty Contest.  Isn't Greek Mythology great? 

A major characteristic of Cosmic Blindness is the tendency to overlook the Risk.  For a person afflicted with Hubris, the danger doesn't seem to matter.  Everyone says the Trojan Horse was the dumbest thing anyone ever did, but I don't agree.  The decision of Paris to steal Helen from the Greeks was equally dumb.  What on earth made Paris think he could keep her?  Having offended King Menelaus, the world's most powerful man, there would be hell to pay.  And so the Greek ships sailed. 

Paris had been warned.  His sister Cassandra predicted the Trojan War would ensue if Paris failed to walk away from his love for Helen.  A war?  Really?  Did that stop him?  Heck, no!  Why worry about others when personal ambition is involved?  Blindly ignoring the full consequence of his action, Hades was soon overflowing with new occupants.  Paris would be one of them.  That is because Pride goeth before the Fall.

COSMIC BLINDNESS THROUGH THE LENS OF HISTORY:

CHAPPAQUIDDICK

The story of Paris and Oedipus are useful illustrations of Cosmic Blindness at work.  However, no one takes Mythology seriously, so let's switch to Reality.  In the centuries that have followed, History has seen story after story of brilliant people who make colossal errors.  This tendency disturbs us all.  If our best and brightest can't avoid making serious mistakes, then what hope is there for the rest of us? 

Due to our obsession with Heroes, whenever analysts discuss the unexplainable misfortune or missteps of an άber-celebrity, the question is asked:  Was this person felled by their own shortcomings or were they a victim of cruel Fate?

No doubt Ted Kennedy asked this same question many times throughout his life.  It took Kennedy ten hours to report the accident at Chappaquiddick.  Was Kennedy's poor judgment impaired by selfish concern over his political future or was his mind rendered dazed by the extreme trauma of the accident?  Or was he a victim of Fate?

Writer after writer asked how a talented person like Ted Kennedy could make such a terrible mistake.  Was there any excuse?  The worst irony became public many years after the accident.  We now know that Mary Jo Kopechne may very well have stayed alive for some time by breathing a small air pocket trapped in the ceiling of the car.  With estimates ranging up to three hours, swifter action would have saved her life.

Although the Senator turned his life around and stood for important social issues such as race and health care, I despised Ted Kennedy throughout my life.  However, as my thoughts crystallized around Cosmic Blindness, it crossed my mind that Kennedy may have been been forced to fall asleep at the wheel.  If this accident was a Fated Event, how tough would it be to turn Kennedy's brain to mush at the key moment? 

Kennedy's mistake is not easy for onlookers to forgive, but it does possess the Hallmark characteristics of Cosmic Blindness.   As we shall see, gifted people are just as prone to the mysterious malady known as Colossal Stupidity as normal people. 

"Talent and intelligence will not inoculate anyone against the Caprice of the Fates." 

COSMIC BLINDNESS through the lens of history:

CAPTAIN SMITH OF THE TITANIC

Prior to the Titanic tragedy, every description of Captain Smith portrayed an image of a serious man who deserved the widespread respect given to him.  Edward John Smith spent his entire life around ships.  Born in 1850, from the moment he was a teenager, Smith worked full-time on boats.  In 1875, Smith earned a master’s certificate which allowed him to pursue a career as a captain.  In 1880,  Smith, now 30, became a junior officer with the White Star Line.  In 1887, Smith was given command of his first ship.  Over the next 25 years, Smith proved himself time and again as an able captain. 

Rising through the ranks, in 1912 Smith was White Star’s senior captain.  At the time of his posting, Smith had 25 years of experience as commander.  Smith was a dignified man who was well liked by crew and passengers alike.  His nickname was 'The Millionaire’s Captain' due to his popularity with wealthy travelers.  One would assume Captain Smith had gained their trust through his considerable experience and reputation for careful leadership. 

White Star asked Captain to guide the Titanic specifically because many well-heeled passengers refused to sail with anyone but him.  Smith, 62, had made it clear he wanted to retire, but White Star asked him to reconsider due to the prestige of the Titanic's maiden voyage.  Reluctantly, Smith left the command of White Star sister ship Olympic to assume control of the Titanic.  He did so with the understanding that he would retire at the end of the trip.  The Titanic left Southampton, England, on its maiden voyage from to New York City in April 1912 with Captain Smith was at the helm. 

The point is that Captain Smith was considered the BEST CAPTAIN IN THE FLEET.   Based on the man's lofty reputation, it was highly out of character for Smith to behave so recklessly.  However, Smith was so out of it he did not even bother to slow down.  Let me add something else I find troubling.  I have yet to understand why his deeply alarmed staff failed to object.  Did everyone on this Voyage of the Damned lose their mind that night?  This was the worst case of collective stupidity since the Trojan Horse. 

Due to the bizarre Jekyll-Hyde contrast, I believe Captain Smith's better judgment was suspended until it was too late.  For this reason, I say forget about Reality and switch to Mysticism.  However, very few people think like I do.  The entire Internet is filled with explanations looking for a way to explain Smith's unfathomable breakdown. 

"Oh, Captain Smith, that damn fool!  What could have possibly caused Smith to lose his mind?"  Was he drunk?  Did the boss give him an order to proceed?  Other people offer psychological profiles to support their conclusions.  I just roll my eyes.  What theory explains how a good man could turn into a complete idiot?  Angry at the world?  Come on now, this was a contented man looking forward to retirement.  Too much pressure from the boss?  Smith was ready to retire, so tell to the boss to jump in the Atlantic.    For crying out loud, it was Midnight and Smith was facing an entire field of ice.  All the Captain had to was stop for six hours and wait for daylight.  What was the hurry?

My Readers may be surprised to find I don't have a problem with Psychology.  As I said earlier, I live by the Rules of Reality just like everyone else.  I am an avid fan of Self-help books, I have a degree in Psychology and principles of Learning, Conditioning, and Motivation made sense.  However, in Extreme situations, I contend these armchair analysts with their pie in the sky theories are wasting their time.  Why delve through a long list of complicated Freudian Complexes when the answer may be as simple as accepting the Power of Fate removed the Captain's mind? 

Sure, my idea is just as pie in the sky as anyone else, but if you are not careful, my weird theory of Cosmic Blindness may begin to grow on you. 

Personally speaking, I think the sinking of the Titanic had Fate written all over it and I have an odd way to prove it.  Let me ask my Reader a question.  Are you are fan of horror movies?  If so, then you know there is always some fool who defiantly insists they are not afraid of the Boogie Man.  You know what this means and so do I.  We immediately look at each other and nod.  Yup, this guy's gonna be the first to go.  So where am I going with this?  Believe it or not, some idiot had the nerve to say, "Even God could not sink the Titanic!"  OMG!  Talk about a ship marked for death!  But why stop there?  Making matters worse, Captain Smith made an eerie statement of his own.

"When anyone asks me how I can best describe my experience in nearly 40 years at sea, I merely say UNEVENTFUL.  Of course there have been winter storms and gales and fog and the like, but in all my experience I have never been in an accident of any sort worth speaking about.  I have seen but one vessel in distress in all my years at sea, a brig, the crew of which was safely taken off in a small boat in charge of my third officer.  I never saw a wreck and have never wrecked, nor was I ever in any predicament that threatened to end in disaster of any sort.  As one can see, I am not very good material for a story.”   -- Edward Smith, New York Times, May 16, 1907

OMG!  Did Captain Smith really say that?  Hasn't he ever seen a Horror Movie?  Talk about a prophetic statement that drips with irony.  Hey, if I'm James Cameron, I am putting Captain Smith in Act One so he can be the guy who insists he is not afraid of the Boogie Man. 

Sad to say, due to Smith's total lapse of judgment, he goes down as the man responsible for the most infamous story in maritime history.  I feel sorry for Captain Smith.  As the ship sank and people lost their lives, his sense of guilt must have been overwhelming.   However, before we rush to censure, keep in mind this is the same man who possessed a sterling record for correct decisions.  If one can accept the merits of the Cosmic Blindness theory, it allows us to view Smith's destructive behavior in a much different light.  I realize it is difficult to believe God would deliberately mislead a decent man like Smith into shameful notoriety, but what if it is true?  I for one believe Captain Smith should be given the benefit of the doubt.  Fifty years of dedicated service should count for something.  

In conclusion, we are faced with a mystery that has no good answer.  For one brief, terrible moment in time, Captain Smith mysteriously lost his mind.  I contend Captain Smith may have been turned into a Blind Fool by forces operating beyond his awareness.  However, I do not expect the Reader to buy my theory off-hand.  I am not even sure I believe it myself.  The idea of a celestial being intentionally clouding a man's mind to cause this tragedy is repugnant to say the least.  However, while it is hard to believe in the concept of a man whose sense was deliberately removed, in Smith's case it is harder to believe in anything else.  If the Titanic was doomed to meet its Fate, then the simplest way to accomplish that was to cloud the mind of the Captain.  I understand this is a controversial theory and I admit I have no way to prove it.  However, I do have Captain Smith.  Captain Smith is the Universal poster boy for Cosmic Stupidity. 

COSMIC BLINDNESS through the lens of history:

MOSCOW BURNS

A key feature of Cosmic Blindness is 'Uncharacteristic Behavior'. 

No one ever accused Napoleon of being stupid.  However, apparently even military geniuses have their blind spots.  Napoleon's decision to attack Russia made perfect sense on paper.  Against his army of half a million, the Russians never had a chance.  Their army had little equipment and virtually no training.  Consequently the Russians employed an unorthodox strategy.  Refusing to fight Napoleon's massive army, they constantly retreated deep into their country and burned their crops along the way. 

As Napoleon watched countless Russian peasants starve to death, he knew exactly what the enemy was doing.  Even when Cossacks attacked his food supply lines from the rear, Napoleon was not worried.  He assumed his army would find plenty of food once they got to Moscow. 

And what did the Russians do?  When Napoleon arrived at Moscow, they burned the city down to deprive his army of food.  Checkmate. 

Why do you suppose Napoleon never saw this coming?  As Napoleon's starving army slunk back to France, the smartest man in Europe had plenty of time to wonder how he could have ever been so blind. 

COSMIC BLINDNESS through the lens of history:

HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF

A major feature of Cosmic Blindness is Arrogance.  Perhaps Adolf Hitler had a competitive streak.  Possessed by an overwhelming sense of superiority, my guess is that Hitler was conceited enough to prove to the world he could succeed where Napoleon had failed. 

In 1941, Adolf Hitler was on a roll.  Supremely confident after easy victories in Western Europe, Hitler broke his non-aggression pact with Russia.  The Soviets were caught totally by surprise and suffered appalling losses.  Unlike the retreat strategy used against Napoleon, Stalin told his men to stand and fight or be shot in the back.  Faced with better armed and better trained Germans, Stalin's heavily-criticized decision cost millions of lives.  Nothing could stop the Wehrmacht! 

Well, yes, nothing could stop them, but Stalin's ruthless decision to fight for every inch did manage to slow the Germans down.  Given time to regroup, Russia stood its ground in the firm knowledge their secret weapon was about to kick in.  And so it did.  1941 was a particularly cold winter with temperatures dropping to -40°C.  The Germans were not equipped in terms of clothing or weapons.  German machine guns were frozen solid.  German Panzer tanks had narrow tracks which could not cope with the deep snow.  Meanwhile Soviet tanks were effective due to much wider tracks.  Ultimately the Russian Winter halted the Wehrmacht just outside the gates of Moscow in December.  Checkmate.

Ironically, the German offensive had started on a warm summer day.  However, the Germans underestimated Stalin's reputation for ruthlessness.  His heartless decision to slow the Germans down at any cost delayed the attack just long enough for the Russian Winter to save the day. However, thanks to Napoleon, there was nothing secret about their secret weapon.  Hitler knew full well he was taking a chance. 

“Books, books, always books!” wrote August Kubizek, young Hitler’s friend as teenagers.  “I just can’t imagine Adolf without books.  He had them piled up around him at home.  He always had a book with him wherever he went.”

One would assume Hitler had read about Napoleon's stunning absence of judgment in attacking Russia.  Furthermore, so had his generals.  They warned Hitler of the danger repeatedly, so why didn't he listen? 

There's an old saying, 'Forewarned is forearmed.'  Perhaps Napoleon never anticipated the danger, but what was Hitler's excuse?  He knew full well that attacking Russia could be a mistake.  Unfortunately, Arrogance was Hitler's fatal flaw.  And so History repeated itself when Hitler senselessly repeated Napoleon's greatest blunder.  Thank goodness. 

COSMIC BLINDNESS through the lens of history:

ROBERT E LEE LOSES HIS MIND

Robert E Lee first came to the attention of Major General Winfield Scott during the Mexican-American War.  Distinguishing himself in one battle after another, Lee was commended by Scott for "the greatest feat of physical and moral courage performed by any individual, in my knowledge, during the campaign."  General Scott would later add that Robert E. Lee was "the very best soldier that I ever saw in the field." 

Prior to Gettysburg, Robert E. Lee established a reputation as a top-flight general.  Performing brilliantly, Lee whipped the superior forces of the North time after time.  Why do you suppose Lincoln replaced one Union General after another?  Scott, McClellan, Banks, Burnside, Hooker, Sickles, Meade, McDowell.  Despite being constantly outnumbered, Robert E Lee ran circles around every one of his Federal opponents. 

Due to his seeming invincibility, historians have long been at a loss to explain how and why Lee's winning streak was interrupted at Gettysburg.  Excuses abound.  Richard Ewell allowed the North to gain possession of the High Ground.  Jeb Stuart's absence deprived Lee of an accurate scouting report.  James Longstreet was too worried about casualties to attack with unbridled fury. 

Personally, I think Robert E Lee was blinded by Fate.  He made inexplicably bad mistakes on back to back days. 

On the second day of battle Lee cost his army its best chance for victory by insisting his orders be followed to the letter.  This story is often referred to as Hood's Protest. 

It is said that one element of Napoleon's genius was his willingness to allow his generals to make snap decisions based on changes seen on the battlefield.  This flexibility allowed his generals to take advantage of unexpected opportunities.  Not so General Lee.  He wanted things done his way.    

As part of a coordinated attack on July 2, 1861, Confederate General John Bell Hood advanced toward Round Top on the extreme left flank of the Union army.  In a shocking development, Hood received a report that a hill known as Little Round Top had been left vacant when Union General Daniel Sickles disobeyed a direct order.  Sickles had moved his troops forward to a Peach Orchard, a position he liked better.  Due to this insipid action, Little Round Top was poorly defended.  However, a frontal assault was daunting since the hill benefitted from a steep slope and giant boulders that made for a strong defensive position.  So why not attack from the rear?

Hood knew exactly what to do.  Rather that go straight at Little Round Top, all he had to do was swing to his right, go AROUND the hill and attack from the rear.  There was NOTHING stopping him.  However, James Longstreet, Hood's direct superior, refused to give permission even though Longstreet agreed with Hood.   Hood protested to Longstreet four times to no avail. He begged to be allowed to march farther to the east, in hopes of getting in behind Little Round Top. 

Longstreet said, “Gen’l Lee’s orders are to attack up the Emmitsburg road.  We must obey the orders of General Lee.” 

Hindsight has bedeviled the South ever since.  Lee's original plan had been correct based on the scouting report of Sickles' initial position.  However, no one could have predicted Sickles was a complete idiot (or did the Invisible Man whisper in his ear?).  Sickles last-minute decision, made without permission, left both Round Top hills without reinforcements in case the Confederates swung around the flank.  Surprisingly, Sickles' unpredictable movement became the perfect defensive move to thwart Lee's original plans! 

So here we have FOUR cases of EXTREME stupidity.  Lee was wrong to insist Longstreet follow his orders.  Longstreet was wrong to obey the orders given that he knew Hood was right.  Hood should have disobeyed orders anyway.  Sickles came within an inch of making a colossal blunder.  If Hood had disobeyed Longstreet, turn out the lights, the party's over.  However, in a case of overwhelming irony, Sickles later demanded he be given complete credit for saving the day due to his 'brilliant decision'.  Incredibly, Sickles got someone to agree with him.  Sickles was awarded the Medal of Honor.  This, my friends, is a phenomenon known as Dumb Luck. 

Lee compounded his error on the following day by sending General George Pickett straight into the teeth of the Union defense.  Known today as "Pickett's Charge", this reckless attack had virtually no chance of success.  In fact, historians say it was tantamount to suicide.  Lee's plan called for 12,500 men in nine infantry brigades to advance over open fields for three-quarters of a mile under heavy Union cannon barrage and rifle fire.  Not just that, the Union soldiers were protected by a low stone wall from which they could reload without fear.  Even though some brave Confederate soldiers made it to the wall, it was effortless just to shoot the unlucky few. 

Prior to battle, General James Longstreet repeatedly stressed the utter futility of the attack.  However, when Lee refused to listen to reason, Longstreet's prediction of a bloodbath came true.  The Confederate soldiers never came close and were repelled with a 50% casualty rate.  The North counted 1,500 men killed or wounded.  The South had 5,000 killed or wounded plus 4,000 taken prisoner.  It was a defeat of such colossal magnitude that the South would never recover.

In the aftermath of Gettysburg, many books have been written attempting to defend Robert E. Lee's inexplicable failure of judgment.  Longstreet is a favorite target.  If Longstreet had disobeyed Lee on Day Two, the South would likely won the battle.   If Longstreet had disobeyed Lee on Day Three, the South would have been in position to fight another day with its army intact.  However, Longstreet had been made second in command for a specific reason... his loyalty and willingness to do things the way he was told to.  Is it fair to blame Longstreet for his failure to obey orders?   I will leave that for the historians to argue about. 

As for Robert E. Lee, he made the two worst decisions of his life during this pivotal battle.  Why would this otherwise brilliant tactician suddenly turn into a stubborn fool who refused to listen to advice?  History offers all sorts of explanations, but I suggest Cosmic Blindness was responsible.  If Fate called for a Union victory, the easiest way to accomplish that was to rob Lee of his common sense. 

COSMIC BLINDNESS: WINSTON CHURCHILL LOSES HIS MIND

Half a century after the disastrous Pickett's Charge, yet another suicidal charge sent thousands of young men to their doom.  The location was Gallipoli, a peninsula in Turkey that guarded the entrance from the Aegean Sea to the Black Sea.  The Cosmic Fool was none other than Winston Churchill

World War I had bogged down into trench warfare along 500 battle-scarred miles known as the Western Front.  Britain and France suffered a million casualties in the first four months alone.  Since then the war had devolved into a deadly stalemate with muddy ditches and countless men fighting over small patches of no man's land.  The costly impasse frustrated Winston Churchill, a rising star of British politics.  He believed a second front would break the impasse.  Using his position as First Lord of the Admiralty, Churchill proposed sending a fleet through the Dardanelles, a narrow waterway which served as the door to the Black Sea.  By reaching the Black Sea, England could open up a second front at Germany's undefended back door.  Unfortunately, the poorly imagined invasion failed miserably.  32,000 men died, many more were wounded. 

Although blame was shared by many, Churchill became the prime scapegoat.  Now disgraced, Churchill was demoted to an obscure cabinet post.  In protest, Churchill resigned.  He picked up a gun and headed to the Western Front to join the infantry for the remainder of the war.  “I am the victim of political intrigue,” Churchill lamented. “I am finished!” 

Fortunately for all of us, Churchill would get a second chance. 

COSMIC BLINDNESS: THE MAGINOT LINE

Ordinarily I focus my attention on famous individuals, but I also believe that entire groups can be blinded.  The most famous example was the Trojan Horse, a situation where an entire city went to sleep at the wheel.  However, that story is easily dismissed as mythological fiction.  Not so easily dismissed is the story of the Maginot Line.  Following catastrophic losses in World War One, France built a very impressive fortification along the Rhine River.  Unfortunately they forgot the old adage that you are only as good as your weakest link. 

Counting on Belgium's rugged Ardennes Forest to shut down Germany's tanks, the French badly miscalculated.  It was not enough for the French to overestimate the power of fallen trees to stop powerful tanks, a concerted defense of the forest was ignored.  Once the Germans penetrated the poorly defended forest to enter France, they captured half a million soldiers by attacking the Maginot Line from behind.  And so, yet again, those who decide to fight wars do not actually fight them.  Meanwhile the battlefield is filled with sparkling white crosses of the dead, very few of whom (if any) are generals. 

As for Andre Maginot, the man behind the Very Bad Idea, he had the good sense to die before the start of World War II. 

COSMIC BLINDNESS: OMAHA BEACH ON D-DAY

Does anyone know why the Normandy Cemetery is located where it is?  I give credit to Heinrich Severloh, a German sometimes referred to as the Butcher of Omaha.  In his memoir, Severloh claimed he fired 12,000 rounds over nine hours, killing an estimated 1,000 American soldiers in the process. 

Anyone who has seen Saving Private Ryan will no doubt recall the startling image of countless dead bodies lying on a beach at D-Day.  Those men were victims of Severloh's deadly machine gun.  After the battle was over, since most of the bodies were concentrated in one spot, the corpses were carried up the hill and buried in the area now known as the Normandy Cemetery.

Should we blame Severloh for this horrific loss of life?  No.  In fact, I feel sorry for the man.  Given no choice in the matter, Severloh did what he was told.  If it wasn't Severloh, it was someone else.  For that matter, Severloh later stated the profound regret he carried for the rest of his life. 

So who do we blame for this unconscionable slaughter?  I lay responsibility for this massacre at the feet of the military planners whose flawed strategy sent these young men straight to their doom.  As we now know, they never had a chance. 

There is great irony in this story.  Here again we see the results of what happens when squad leaders follow their orders despite overwhelming evidence that their orders make no sense. 

In addition, we see again that a defense is only as good as its weakest link.  In this case, the weakest link was Adolf Hitler.

Our story starts with Erwin Rommel, the brilliant German general known as the Desert Fox.  Rommel was handed the task of preparing the defenses at Normandy.  Rommel was realistic enough to know he could not prevent the Allies from landing their soldiers on the beach.  Instead he planned to keep the attackers pinned down long enough for reinforcements to arrive.

Rommel was not sure where the Allies would land, so he stationed a crack Panzer division in an area equidistant to the likely landing sites.  Located two hours from Normandy, the Panzer tanks were prepared to rush down the moment the invasion began.  Rommel envisioned his tanks would wreak havoc on the helpless soldiers trapped on the beach. 

Rommel's major concern was preventing Allied tanks from making their way into the French countryside to thwart the advance of the Panzers. His main objective was to deny Allied tanks any passage for at least two hours.  Rommel's job was made much easier by the rugged Normandy coastline.  For miles on end, imposing hills, bluffs, and cliffs made it impossible for any tank to scale. 

Unfortunately for Rommel, there was one weakness.  Over time, small streams had cut holes in the chain of hills every mile or so that was wide enough for a tank to drive through.  Not a problem, Rommel decided.  He would  guard these occasional gaps with massive defense fortifications known as Widenstandnester Units, better known as WN's. 

As one can see by the death count of the Butcher of Omaha, these WN's were murderously effective.  Fortunately, a brave Captain named Joseph Dawson heroically saved the day.  By fortuitous chance, his landing craft landed just barely out of the reach of Severloh's deadly machine gun fire.  Severloh's weapon had a range of 700 yards. Dawson's unit was lucky to land in a spot just barely beyond the range of Severloh's Killing Field. 

Although Dawson had been ordered to attack Severloh's position directly, that idea looked like an invitation to suicide.  Dawson took one look at the gruesome number of mounting casualties and knew following orders would ensure death for all his men.

Dawson decided he would rather try the funnel-like ravine on the hill before him.  Dawson was looking at a risky 350 yard climb to the top at roughly a 30° angle.  Fortunately, the machine gun fire coming at them from the hill was nowhere near as severe as from the direction of the Butcher of Omaha.  It would be a tough, dangerous climb, but Dawson believed this direction gave his men their best chance of reaching the top. 

At this point, Dawson got lucky again.  Minutes later, a second unit commanded by Lieutenant John Spalding landed safely nearby.  Spalding's unit would be instrumental in helping Dawson once the two companies left the beach. 

Dawson was facing three major obstacles.  There was a pillbox in front of the beach, a sniper's nest halfway, and a powerful machine gun unit at the top of the hill.  

Due to a third stroke of luck, the pillbox directly in front of Spalding and Dawson's landing spot was either unmanned or had been eradicated earlier. 

"We walked across the beach unharmed because nobody stopped us.  I was curious why there was no MG (machine gun) fire to speak of.  Someone pointed out a pillbox on the hill facing us that didn't seem to be in operation.  It doesn't hurt to be lucky." -- Lt. John Spalding

Amazing but true, Spalding and Dawson's units were placed in perhaps the only spot in the Kill Zone Triangle that was relatively free of the deadly WN62 and WN64 crossfire.  No one knew it at the time, but Rommel had decided to scrimp on his hillside defenses.  Desperately short on manpower, the sniper's nest facing Dawson was manned by a single soldier.  A captured Polish man was forced to shoot at the Americans or risk being shot in the back by the Germans above.  Fortunately, the Polish conscript was deliberately not aiming very well.  Dawson made two decisions.  Unaware the nearby sniper's nest was not a threat, for safety Dawson told the men to stay put halfway up the hill.  Then he ordered Spalding's unit to distract the machine gun nest at the top of the hill with non-stop withering fire.  With the Germans preoccupied by Spalding's unit, Dawson crawled 75 yards on his stomach inch by inch until he was hidden beneath a ledge.  His presence was unknown to the two German gunners 15 feet above. 

Dawson worked his way around the ledge to a better vantage point.  After pulling the pin out of two hand grenades, he bravely showed himself.  The two Germans spotted Dawson at the same time he spotted them.  30 feet separated them.  Taking advantage of surprise, Dawson threw the grenades.  This was kill or be killed, incredibly  dramatic.  If Dawson hesitated to get a better aim, the bullets would reach him first.  If he missed his target, Dawson would be cut to shreds.  Would the grenades with their 4-second time delay arrive before the panic-stricken Germans swung their weapon around to shoot?  Under extreme pressure, Dawson threw a perfect strike from 30 feet away. 

Dawson's decision to singlehandedly take out the German machine gun nest cleared the day's first safe passage to the top.  From here, a swarm of GIs made it to the top and systematically took out every German WN position from behind.   Joseph Dawson's heroics became the major reason the death count at Omaha Beach was not higher.

Ironically, Dawson's heroics might well have been negated had Rommel's ingenious plan been carried out properly.  The Panzers might have saved the day except for the interference of a self-described military mastermind.  A known control freak, Hitler insisted the Panzers were not to be released without his explicit permission.  Only one problem.  On the night before the invasion, Hitler gave strict orders not to awaken him for any reason.  Due to a colossal error in judgment by the German High Command, no one dared inform Hitler that the early morning invasion was underway.  By the time Hitler woke up, the D-Day invasion had been successfully completed and the Panzers were still sitting there unmoved.  Another example of Cosmic Blindness?  It certainly fits the description. 

Unfortunately, German Blindness was more than equally matched by American Blindness.  For reasons that make no sense, American strategy sent men straight into the teeth of the German defense.  It was Pickett's Charge and Gallipoli all over again.  The D-Day planners were just as obsessed with Rommel's Panzers as Rommel was with their tanks.  Unfortunately, the American tanks had to be unloaded first while the Panzers were gassed and raring to go.  The Strategists knew it was a race against time.  Would they get their men off the beach before the German tanks arrived?  The planners decided it was urgent to take out the German defense units at all costs.  As a result, every time a new wave of soldiers landed on the beach, their orders were to run straight at the nearest machine gun nest despite no protection whatever.  In other words, just run straight at the Butcher of Omaha and die.  And so they did.  The poor men were sitting ducks.  1,000 dead bodies lay on Omaha Beach as stark testimony to the ineffectiveness of the American assault strategy. 

As is usually the case with Cosmic Blindness, such is the danger of Blind Obedience.  Except this time, unlike James Longstreet and John Bell Hood at Gettysburg, Joseph Dawson disobeyed orders and saved the day.  My favorite part of the story was thinking about the cowering German generals who obeyed Der Fόhrer's orders to make sure the military genius got a good night's sleep. 

I do not know why Tragedy is a part of life.  What I do know is that the phrase 'Asleep at the Wheel' is unusually appropriate for this story.  Were it not for Hitler's mysterious D-Day behavior, this story might have had a much different outcome. 

Cosmic Blindness:  Pearl Harbor

No doubt my ever-curious Reader wonders why I keep hammering away at Cosmic Blindness.  After all, I have dedicated ten stories in this chapter to the subject in addition to my own story.  Isn't that enough to make my point?   No!  I think the idea that our mind is periodically controlled by forces beyond our awareness is so abhorrent that most Readers prefer to dismiss the possibility without a second thought.  For that reason, I intend to give people a good reason to wonder.  And so, without further ado, here is another story. 

When President Roosevelt was informed of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the first thing he asked was how the Japanese managed to catch this vital base totally unguarded. 

On the morning of December 7, 1941, George Elliott was manning the radar equipment on the northern tip of Oahu.  Just after 7 am Elliott noticed an unusually large number of blips on the radar, a pattern which indicated a large number of planes.  As we now know, these blips reflected 353 aircraft launched from four Japanese carriers.  Elliott showed the signal to Joseph Lockard who dismissed it as a malfunction.  However, Elliott disagreed.  Unsure what the signal could be, Elliott made a call to the Information Center at Fort Shafter.  No one was available, so he awaited a call back. 

Precious seconds ticked off the clock.  When the return call came, Lockard answered.  On the other end Lt. Kermit Tyler dismissed the large blip as six American B-17 bombers scheduled to arrive from San Francisco.  When Lockard hung up the phone, Elliott protested.  First, San Francisco was on the northeast and the signals were on the west.  Second, the radar signature was so large there was no way a mere six bombers could be responsible.  But Lockard had already hung up the phone and his shift was over, so that was that.  George Elliott was new to this job, so he did not have the confidence to continue his protest.  Instead he sat there and fumed with a helpless sense of dread.

Although the correct call would not have prevented the impending bombardment, a 15 minute warning would have saved countless lives and material.  U.S. planes would have been airborne and ship guns manned.  But that is not what happened.  Instead, three men who were assigned the vital responsibility of protecting Pearl Harbor fell asleep at the wheel.  Think about it... not one, not two, but THREE MEN made the worst mistake of their lives that day.  How could they ignore a radar screen that screamed 'Possible Enemy Attack'?  They were given one precious job to do and they blew it! 

Pearl Harbor was a disaster waiting to happen.  Ships were jammed as tightly as possible, planes were neatly lined in easily-destroyed rows.  Don't bother to aim, just drop a bomb and watch it hit something.  President Roosevelt had every right to wonder why no precautions were taken.  The answer is simple.  No one was worried because they had Radar to protect them!! 

Put yourself in their shoes.  You are a radar operator at Pearl Harbor who sees a horde of unexplained blips coming at you on the screen.  No, they are not stationary, they are coming closer!  Your superior tells you this giant mass of blips must be 6 airplanes scheduled to arrive from San Francisco.  Two problems.  San Francisco is on the right and the blips are on the left.  Furthermore, considering 350 planes were headed to Pearl Harbor, how could 6 planes be the answer for the massive blob of signals dominating the screen?  Even a preschooler could do the math, so why was it so difficult for three trained professionals to figure it out??

How does anyone explain such a colossal error?  Freudian complexes in three different men?  By now you already know my answer.  If Pearl Harbor was a Fated event, then something had to go wrong.  If the attack was meant to succeed, I wonder if these three men had their judgment secretly impaired.  This story makes no sense!

As it turns out, Greek Mythology has a Pearl Harbor story of its very own... the Trojan Horse.  An entire city let down its guard and put out the welcome mat for their sworn enemy.  One of history's most startling examples of ignorance and stupidity was the decision to haul the Trojan Horse inside the walls of Troy.  We all know how that turned out.  Massacre.

Now ask yourself this.  Is it typical for a defeated army to leave a Trophy behind and let bygones be bygones?  In the annals of History, how many times has a defeated nation willingly donated a lovely prize to the victor?  Did the Confederates leave behind a flattering statue of Abraham Lincoln?  Did the Yanks leave behind a handsome portrait of Ho Chi Minh as they abandoned Saigon?  Of course not. 

One characteristic of Cosmic Stupidity is Blindness to Danger.  "Beware Greeks bearing gifts!"  The crazy part came when the Trojans decided to drag the giant horse inside their walls.   Hey, look, the Greeks put wheels on the horse!  Gee, how convenient.  Too bad those nice Greeks didn't stick around so we could thank them.  Hmm.  What on earth would cause an entire community to drag the Trojan Horse inside their walls?  Would it really hurt to leave the giant horse outside for a few days? 

Believe or not, the Trojans were warned to be more careful.  Cassandra was the daughter of Priam, King of Troy.  Due to her gift of prophecy, Princess Cassandra fervently begged her father not to allow his men to haul the mysterious Trojan Horse inside the gates of Troy.  Priam completely ignored his headstrong daughter and her vision of doom.  So did everyone else.  No one would listen.  In fact, they were openly hostile, abusing the prophetess with harsh insults.  Labeled a fool and an idiot, Cassandra was determined to save Troy.  Grabbing an axe in one hand and a burning torch in the other, she ran towards the Trojan Horse to personally destroy the threat.  The Trojans stopped her and carried her away.

Here is the problem.  Give Homer credit for a very creative ending to the Iliad.  However, since this is Mythology, this far-fetched tale was a figment of an over-active imagination.   We all know something this crazy could never happen in real life!  We are far too alert to let people secretly invade our country and plan to destroy us.  After all, we have an Alphabet Soup of agencies to protect us and a far-sighted collection of brilliant Pentagon Generals.

And yet in an eerie repeat of Pearl Harbor, we all know what happened in 2001.  The failure of the CIA/NSA/FBI to spot the obvious warning signs of the 9-11 plot has been one of the most hotly contested issues in the history of Intelligence.  There have been commissions, internal investigations, scholarly reviews and more.  Due to several warnings within the agency, people wondered how the CIA could be so blind.  Why didn't they connect the dots?

Oddly enough, the 9-11 tragedy had a Cassandra of its very own.  His name was Tom Clancy.  In his 1994 novel Debt of Honor, Clancy wrote of a terrorist who uses an airplane as a bomb to level the U.S. Capitol.  While he was writing the book, Clancy became disturbed that this possibility was not as far-fetched as he first thought.  Curious to see how the military had prepared for a real attack of this sort, Clancy consulted an Air Force officer.  Here is what Clancy remembers from the meeting:

Tom Clancy had just spelled out the mechanism for a deadly attack on American soil face to face with a high-ranking General.  This man had the authority to act on the warning.  Did the General do something about it?  No.  He fell asleep at the wheel.  However, why scapegoat this lone General?  Why not cast a wider net of blame?  After all, anyone who read the book should have seen the danger. 

Debt of Honor debuted in 1994 number one on the New York Times bestseller list.  The novel contained plot elements strikingly similar to the circumstances of the 9-11 terrorist attacks.  That included hijacking an airplane to use as a giant guided missile.  Since Clancy was the hot author of the day, his thrillers were favorite reading material for everyone in the Defense industry.  That meant every military expert at the Pentagon and every Intelligence agent had been given SEVEN YEARS to consider a novel attack of this nature.

While scouring the Internet for reasons that could explain the profound negligence which led to 9-11, I came across dozens of articles.  Although every article had a different slant, they all had one thing in common.  Each article was trying to explain how a tragedy of this magnitude could come to pass (and not having much luck).  To me, it was a replay of the armchair Titanic analysts.  Let's face it, when something goes wrong, we all want to know what caused it so we can prevent it from happening again.  As I reviewed the various articles, the field of Psychology was often cited with possible answers.  That made perfect sense.  After all, the field of Psychology arose because rational people consistently have trouble finding logical explanations for behaviors that make no sense. 

Over the ages, scholars have done everything in their power to answer one burning question:  Why do otherwise intelligent people make colossal errors of misjudgment?  Whenever this question is raised, people run to Psychology for answers.  That is because Rational people fear the Irrational.  So let me ask a question.  Which Freudian Complex caused Napoleon and Hitler to invade Russia close to winter time?  Which complex caused General Lee to attack the strength of the Northern defense at Gettysburg rather than listen to the stern warnings of his staff?  Which complex caused Winston Churchill to attack Gallipoli despite being informed of the great risk?  Which psychological flaw prevented three men from comprehending the danger screaming at them from the Pearl Harbor radar screen?  Which complex made a top-flight mariner like Captain Smith send the Titanic to an icy grave? 

If there is one common theme that stretches through every story, it is Obedience to Authority.  We are taught to see things a certain way and not to question.  We are taught to obey orders and ignore our misgivings.  It is all part of the socialization process.   Let me offer a simple example.  Assuming you are familiar with the Titanic story, has it ever occurred to you that Captain Smith was an unwitting pawn of Fate on that terrible night?  Probably not.  We are not taught to think that way. 

And you know what?  If a boy named Bob had not come bursting into my German classroom when he did, I would probably call Ted Kennedy a coward and Captain Smith an idiot just like everyone else.  But I was given an opportunity to look at things differently.  And so I have slipped into a Cassandra role and written a book to suggest an alternative way of seeing what we call Reality.  Perhaps Captain Smith was not a reckless idiot, but rather a pawn at the mercy of Fate.  From where I stand, people who pursue Psychology for answers are barking up the wrong tree.  Yes, Blind Spots and Poor Judgment are a form of Mental Illness.  But did it ever occur to anyone that Mental Illness can be imposed on us from beyond?  If you or I are in a position to affect the course of human affairs such as manning a Radar Unit or guiding a ship on its maiden voyage, it may be our Destiny to see things in a certain misguided way. 

Are you confident that the way you view the world is the way it really is?  Fate is a curious thing.  No one knows where Very Bad Ideas come from.  Did you know some people have even suggested Clancy's book is where Bin Laden got his idea in the first place?  Why did Bin Laden see something that everyone in America completely missed?  It's the Trojan Horse all over again.  We see what we are meant to see, we will miss what we are meant to miss.  However, unlike the Muggles, we get to hang onto our memory.  This gives us the chance to reflect on experiences that do not fit our current view of Reality.  If you are starting to see my point, then I have done my job.

In conclusion, I have several reasons why I think an understanding of Cosmic Blindness is important.

•  If Cosmic Blindness is a fact, then Fate is also a fact.  The existence of Fate implies an order to the Universe we can barely comprehend.  Fate suggests that our worst Mistakes are made for a reason.  Cosmic Blindness is another way of saying when something bad is about to happen, it may be our Fate to fall asleep at the wheel. 

•  If we are all destined to make at least two or three serious mistakes in our lifetime, once it happens we should do our best not to make things worse.  Accept the mistake, apologize to the appropriate people, vow never to let it happen again, and take action to atone for the mistake. 

•  When you make a serious error, consider the possibility that you had no choice in the matter.  Yes, it happened to you, so you are in charge of cleaning up this mess.  However, while it is natural to feel guilt and shame, there is no point in beating yourself to death over it.  Excessive guilt is counter-productive.  Instead concentrate on how to make amends.  And, while you are at it, try to forgive yourself.  Spend as little time playing the victim as possible.  Look at it this way.  You have been handed a Bad Break, but the existence of Fate implies a Higher Power as well as Justice in the Universe.  Fate implies a system of rewards for good deeds and punishment for bad deeds.  So no matter how bad it is, don't give up.  Rather than hurt yourself with self-destructive acts and excessive remorse, make the best of your situation and find a way to make the world a better place.  

•  At some point in your life, you will do something Stupid.  It is Inevitable.  When the time comes to be dealt a bad hand, play the hand dealt to you with as much skill as you are capable of.  For if there is one thing I am sure of, the harder we work, the luckier we get.