A Discourse in Dissent: The Danger in Perpetuating False Narratives
By: Petra Cervenka
Tags: Okd, Politics, Babiš, Czech Republic, Corruption

When those in power control the stories of history, it becomes easy to weave a false narrative, weaponizing lies to their advantage.

When we look back and analyze the past, we often do so with all the knowledge we have in the present. Often new information challenges what we had once believed to be true and draws into question our identity and understanding in an unexpected way. With that said, an awareness of this hindsight phenomenon can allow us to view the present in a new light.

Hindsight is a powerful tool that we can leverage when critically thinking about the past and the present — anything from Christopher Columbus to modern, international legal battles.

Hindsight Bias

Humans relish ‘closure’ and we find comfort in order and predictability, even if it is to our own detriment. When it appears to be too easy to create a narrative, we assume that the outcome of an event must have been foreseeable and unavoidable.

Nobel Prize laureate and behavioral economist Daniel Kahneman called this phenomenon ‘hindsight bias’. Kahneman explains that “What hindsight does is it blinds us to the uncertainty with which we live. That is, we always exaggerate how much certainty there is. Because after the fact, everything is explained.”

If you believe you knew the result of an event all along, you will not take the time to truly examine the complicated circumstances that led to the outcome and its aftermath. There can be an inherent danger in simplification, however, an awareness of hindsight bias can provide a critical tool in battling injustice.

Challenging the Stories of History — Several Examples in Case

The collective narrative of human history is written by those in power. Accordingly, we can easily be misled when the truth is recreated, omitted and distorted to fit a certain agenda, seducing us with false stories accepted as fact.

Was Columbus really a daring explorer who discovered the New World, or was he a plunderer responsible for the genocide of hundreds of thousands of indigenous people?

Americans idolize the Founding Fathers for creating a democratic government built on the values of equality but neglect to recognize their contribution to the perpetuation of the institution of slavery. In creating this selective narrative, Americans are also able to ignore the fact that racial discrimination is built into the foundations of the United States.

Accepting simplified narratives limit our understanding of the world today. But what happens when we are presented with new information about the past and those who are responsible for writing it? How will it affect your judgment in the present and future?

Who Controls the Narrative? Enter the Czech Republic

The most recent attempts to shape public opinion regarding New World Resources (NWR) and its subsidiary Ostravsko-karvinské doly (OKD), the largest hard coal mining company in the Czech Republic, serve as an example of how easily the public can be influenced by the media when it is being manipulated by those in power. It is imperative that the people recognize this manipulation of the facts and critically challenge those in power to protect their young democracy.

We would like to consider ourselves more aware than those who came before us, more progressive and less likely to have the fleece pulled over our eyes. But when we look closer, and especially today, we see powerful people in government and business aligning themselves with the media in a new and more dangerous way.

Often compared to American President Donald Trump and former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, the current Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, Andrej Babiš, is the country’s second richest man according to Forbes and the owner of two of the most influential national newspapers and the country’s largest commercial national radio station.

The Paris-based watchdog organization Reporters Without Borders recently downgraded the Czech Republic eleven positions on its 2019 World Press Freedom Index — a measure of journalistic freedom — stating, “The level of concentration of media ownership has become critical since the new oligarchs began to buy daily newspapers thanks to their wealth in order to strengthen their influence.”

The country previously enjoyed one of the highest rankings, 13th overall in 2015, among former Eastern Bloc countries, representing an alarming decline in a short period of time.

Furthermore, targeted campaigns to disseminate misinformation have threatened to undermine democratic institutions across the world. Public discourse around OKD and the major players involved in a struggle over control of its assets has been distorted by growing media bias and harmful misinformation campaigns.

A privately funded Facebook campaign operating the page Zastavme zloděje (Stop the Thieves) has sponsored posts and shared thousands of false and sensational claims has been wielded against former OKD investors to damage their credibility with the public and invalidate their claims to compensation. The use of social media to lobby misinformation attacks against economic rivals is a dangerous trend taking hold in the Czech Republic.

OKD: A Case Study in Deception

The OKD is a large well-known mining company in the Czech Republic that was owned by the state before being privatized in the 1990s. In a unique arrangement, the government transferred the ownership of the company to the Czech people, making them shareholders in a private company.

After encountering financial issues five years ago, the company requested a loan from the government to maintain its essential operations. Not unlike the bail-outs of the auto and banking industries in the United States during the recession, it was deemed necessary to maintain the country’s economic stability.

Then serving as Finance Minister, Andrej Babiš, would play a central role in what would begin an ongoing saga of name-blaming, court cases and head-spinning disputes. Over the course of several years, the Czech people would be inundated with fake-news, daily name-mongering and politically motivated story-telling. But a change in discourse is proving what may be hindsight bias.

A Dysfunctional Comedy of Errors or A Coordinated Conspiracy

Under the direction of CEO Gareth Penny, OKD began to hemorrhage financially until it was forced into bankruptcy in 2016. The government quickly assigned Lee Louda, a state employee closely aligned with Minister Babiš as the liquidator for OKD’s insolvency. His appointment was not only questionable but represented a controversial conflict of interest.

If it were Louda’s job to reorganize the company in the best interest of the shareholders and creditors, why did he reject offers in excess of $20 million by private companies to purchase OKD in favor of a measly $3 million bid from state-owned Prisko?

Louda is currently ensnared in high-profile lawsuits in London and Prague over his handling of OKD’s liquidation of assets. Repeated losses in key court decisions, as well as current trials, do not appear to be supporting the previous narrative in which the shareholders were at fault for OKD’s failure. This includes a decisive judgment in the High Court of London striking down Louda’s attempts to win back money that was paid as dividends over half a decade ago.

Baruch Fischoff, a psychologist known for his research of hindsight bias in action, said, “Failure to appreciate the effects of outcome knowledge can seriously prejudice the evaluation of decisions made in the past and limit what is learned from experience.” The question for the Czech people is now that you have the knowledge, what will you do with it?

Looking back with the gift of hindsight, the government takeover of OKD — from the management of Penny as CEO to the handling of the company’s insolvency by Louda — was either a huge clusterfuck or a nicely orchestrated conspiracy. What is clear today, is that public discourse and sentiment is slowly changing and that the justice system of a new democracy may actually be working as it was meant to work.

The Fallout

The Czech government and individuals conspiring within the government have essentially stolen the OKD from the people. The theft of public money must be restored. The rightful ownership of OKD by the people must be reinstated and those who have plotted to pilfer from its shareholders must be punished and forced to compensate OKD’s legitimate investors.

The Czech Parliament has opened an investigation into the handling of OKD, but it has yet to release the final report detailing its findings. The report has been continually delayed, perhaps as an attempt by those in power to cover up the truth.

It is interesting to note that Transparency International has listed the Czech Republic as a ‘Country to Watch’ in their Corruption Perceptions Index 2018, demonstrating the failure of the country to significantly control corruption and threatening the young democracy. This pattern of deception appears to run deep within the government leadership of the Czech Republic.

The European Commission and Czech authorities have independently accused Prime Minister Babiš of violating conflict-of-interest statues related to EU subsidies and his economic interests in his company Argofert. Recently, mass protests have taken to the streets to oppose Babiš’s leadership and demand his resignation.

Nevertheless, it is largely the public who was disadvantaged when the company was stolen from its shareholders — made possible either through the misunderstanding of the situation by the media or the manipulation of the former Finance Minister and current Prime Minister Andrej Babiš who has benefitted politically and financially from the government takeover.

Take note of this case, that in several months may turn the current narrative right-side up. And while you and I may not care about the OKD, this story should serve as an important reminder of how fickle people can be, how public opinion can be manipulated to shape a legal battle and the power of hindsight in affecting the collective narrative that we believe.