Earthquakes were my first interest in things that were determined by 'tradition' and not physics. As such, they had many myths that kept them going. As with everything else, much power was tied up in the pronouncements by senior people, and they fought like heck to preserve power.
The biggest myth was that a fault generated the earthquake. This just 'made sense'. As such, the callie guys went nuts mapping every stinkin' little fault, and drawing circles around them where you couldn't build anything.
Groupthink is always based on things that make sense. It is spread by powerful influencers who ridicule anybody who opposes it. It is all fine and dandy until it collapses. Then those people scurry off into the corners, and you never hear of them again. If they decide to have an investigation, it is always the guy who was warning everybody who got the can, because he didn't try hard enough.
- to be continued, maybe
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