Blind

Geert Mak is a Dutch historian-writer-documentary maker. His recent television series deals with European history in this century. In the trailer, he says: “Nothing is more difficult than to recognize history when you’re in the middle of it.” We’re often blind to the obvious directions of the developments we’re part of and consequently don’t recognize their implications.

On a Tuesday afternoon in early September 1990, Philips pulled the plug on the famous Mega project. A room filled with hundreds of engineers learned they were laid off. Talking to them in hindsight, it was surprising that most of them had absolutely not seen the bad omens. They either ignored them, explained them away, considered such a large financial write-off impossible or believed it was just jealousy. The fact that the VP of the most profitable Philips IC branch, after doing a quick calculation on the backside of a beer mat, had refused to be associated with Mega, that several research managers had declined to co-operate and many other criticisms had been voiced, hadn’t impressed them.