Kansas’ march to zero and ‘The March of Folly’

Despite strong evidence to the contrary, many legislative candidates continue to support the notion that the 2012 Kansas income tax cuts are good for the state.

These candidates (along with Gov. Sam Brownback) cling to any snippet of anecdote that remotely indicates the state’s economy is expanding despite well-documented weak economic performance and damage to public services.

The result of this political spin is the painfully familiar and never-ending state budget crisis.

I find parallels between the current unwillingness to admit the state’s problems and the observations in a book written more than 30 years ago by the late Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Barbara Tuchman.

“The March of Folly” examined historical examples of governments and institutions pursuing policies contrary to their own self-interest. Tuchman also attempted to explain why this self-destructive behavior occurs, calling it a “process of self-hypnosis” among policymakers.

She wrote: “For the ruler it is easier, once he has entered a policy box, to stay inside. For the lesser official it is better, for the sake of his position, not to make waves, not to press evidence that the chief will find painful to accept. Psychologists call the process of screening out discordant information ‘cognitive dissonance,’ an academic disguise for ‘Don’t confuse me with the facts.’”

Along the way, cognitive dissonance “causes alternatives to be ‘deselected since even thinking about them entails conflicts.’”

She added: “Policy founded upon error multiplies, never retreats. The greater the investment and the more involved in it the sponsor’s ego, the more unacceptable is disengagement.”

Tuchman thought it was important to write about this phenomenon because it recurs throughout history.

It now looks like part of Kansas history, but there is still an opportunity to stop the damage before it becomes as permanent a self-inflicted blunder as the events Tuchman described.

Kansans’ opportunity for “disengagement” lies in the upcoming August and November elections and the selection of lawmakers who embrace the very difficult work of undoing the folly of the “march to zero.”

This story was originally published July 31, 2016 at 12:03 AM with the headline "Kansas’ march to zero and ‘The March of Folly’."