History Main / HeadInTheSandManagement

->''"[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_... First they came]] for the communists, and I did not speak out -- Because I was not a communist.\\

->''"First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out -- Because I was not a communist.\\

* ''Literature/AmericasStepbrotherAmericasEnemyTwoPointZero'': As the story is an AU version of ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'', this trope is an inevitable consequence of Newthink, the very foundation of the Inner Party's power. Despite being faced with a virtually undefeatable enemy in a dimensionally-relocated United States, generations of Newthink and Doublespeak has made it impossible for anyone with any kind of authority to even acknowledge defeat, much less adapt to any of it. It quickly gets to the point where the soldiers start murdering their Thought Police officers just so they can surrender to U.S forces.

->''"First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out -- Because I was not a socialist.\\

* In the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' series, the Council has this attitude towards the Reapers despite Shepard repeatedly telling them that they're coming, especially Sparatus, and Shepard has the opportunity to not only [[WhatTheHellHero call them out on it]], but can even refuse to save them in the first game, not that their replacements are any better. All three quickly do a 180 in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' when the Reapers finally arrive, and amusingly Turian Sparatus is the most supportive of the three. Salarian Valern requires Shepard to rescue him from Cerberus, and the supposedly reasonable Asari Tevos first states that, "The cruel and unfortunate truth is that while the Reapers focus on Earth, we can prepare and regroup.", a stupid strategy when you realize that since the Reapers are hitting multiple planets at once, there would be no time to regroup effectively. Later its revealed that she had extremely important information regarding a Prothean Beacon that the Asari had been hiding for centuries and doesn't tell Shepard until the last minute. This ends up resulting in LaserGuidedKarma when Thessia falls to the Reapers about as fast as Earth did once the Reapers actually reach it.

* In ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'', the Trooper storyline has you go after a highly competent and ruthless Sith general. [[spoiler: After a lot of hard work, luck and HeroicSacrifice you succeed in capturing him. You are given a medal and told that the Republic has traded the prisoner back to the Empire for some trivial concessions. This can be averted, but it requires certain choices to be made and shouting down the Supreme Chancellor ''while they're giving you a medal''.]] There is an undeclared war going on with the Sith Empire that the Republic is losing but the Senate sees no reason to be concerned and thinks that they can still negotiate with the Sith.
* In the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' series, the Council has this attitude towards the Reapers despite Shepard repeatedly telling them that they're coming, especially Sparatus, and Shepard has the opportunity to not only [[WhatTheHellHero call them out on it]], but can even [[spoiler:refuse to save them in the first game, not that their replacements are any better]]. All three quickly do a 180 in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' when the Reapers finally arrive, and amusingly turian Sparatus is the most supportive of the three. Salarian Valern requires Shepard to [[spoiler:rescue him from Cerberus]], and the supposedly reasonable asari Tevos first states that, "The cruel and unfortunate truth is that while the Reapers focus on Earth, we can prepare and regroup,"[[note]]A stupid strategy since the Reapers are hitting multiple planets at once, leaving no time to regroup effectively[[/note]] then refuses to give Shepard a vital clue until it is already too late. [[spoiler:This ends up resulting in LaserGuidedKarma when Thessia falls to the Reapers about as fast as Earth did once the Reapers actually reach it.]]
** Lampshaded during the Citadel coup attempt. When you tell them [[spoiler:Udina]] sold them out to Cerberus, Tevos admits that every time they've doubted you before (i.e. every time you've spoken to them except when you proved Saren's treachery), it hasn't ended well for them.
** During the ''Citadel'' DLC, an easy-to-miss part of the background [[spoiler: reveals that the council was flat-out lying to Shepard; they actually ''did'' believe in the Reapers and the more believable explanations they parroted at Shepard were just excuses for them to ignore a problem they could barely comprehend, let alone handle.]]

** In the History and Lore videos on The Vale, Petyr Baelish, admittedly biased, regards this as the chief failing of the Vale, noting that their geographical defenses have kept them isolated from matters of real concern, like making peace with or destroying the Hill Tribes and it feeds them an unjustified sense of security and superiority.

* Cornelius Fudge in ''Literature/HarryPotter'' did this quite a bit in the first few books and films, but this behavior is at its worst in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix The Order of the Phoenix]]''. Fudge desperately tries to deny that BigBad Voldemort has returned, even setting up a smear campaign against Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore for even suggesting Voldemort was around. His denial even extends to actively interfering with Hogwarts' ability to teach their students self-defense by making their Defense Against the Dark Arts class ineffectual fluff only good for passing standardized testing. This all blows up in Fudge's face when Voldemort appears right outside the Ministry of Magic, thus removing all possible doubt to his return. Fudge ended up getting the sack after the true nature of the threat became apparent; Fudge's actions meant that a lot of deaths could have been avoided if his pride and cowardice weren't ruling his actions. It's also hinted that Fudge [[GreenEyedMonster was jealous of Dumbledore's success]], and that Fudge realized deep down that he was a weak man trying to play the strong man. It puts Fudge's actions in an even worse light to the characters, since Fudge let people die and put even more people in danger just to spite Dumbledore. The moral outrage around the denial of Voldemort's return leads to Fudge going down as one of the worst Ministers of Magic in history.

* Prince (later King) Meurig of Gwent in ''Literature/TheWarlordChronicles''. He starts out by convincing his fellow Gwentians to back out of the war with Powys, which any realist would see would quickly lead to Dumnonia becoming a Powysian puppet-state, thus surrounding Gwent on three sides. In the second book, while king, refuses to intervene in a civil war in Dumnonia in support of Arthur, potentially leaving governance in the hands of a group of Saxon-backed conspirators. In the third, he refuses to join with the other British nations in resisting the Saxon invasion of Dumnonia, which proves a bridge too far: his father Tewdric returns to the throne briefly to resist the invasion. The series' framing device makes clear that Meurig's kingdom was within his lifetime mostly conquered by the Saxons.

* Cornelius Fudge in ''Literature/HarryPotter'' did this quite a bit in the first few books and films, but this behavior is at its worst in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix The Order of the Phoenix]]''. Fudge desperately tries to deny that BigBad Voldemort has returned, even setting up a smear campaign against Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore for even suggesting Voldemort was around. This all blows up in Fudge's face when Voldemort appears right outside the Ministry of Magic, thus removing all possible doubt to his return. Fudge ended up getting the sack after the true nature of the threat became apparent; Fudge's actions meant that a lot of deaths could have been avoided if his pride and cowardice weren't ruling his actions. It's also hinted that Fudge [[GreenEyedMonster was jealous of Dumbledore's success]], and that Fudge realized deep down that he was a weak man trying to play the strong man. It puts Fudge's actions in an even worse light to the characters, since Fudge let people die and put even more people in danger just to spite Dumbledore. The moral outrage around the denial of Voldemort's return leads to Fudge going down as one of the worst Ministers of Magic in history.

* In the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' series, the Council has this attitude towards the Reapers despite Shepard repeatedly telling them that they're coming, especially Sparatus, and Shepard has the opportunity to not only [[WhatTheHellHero call them out on it]], but can even [[spoiler:refuse to save them in the first game, not that their replacements are any better]]. All three quickly do a 180 in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' when the Reapers finally arrive, and amusingly turian Sparatus is the most supportive of the three. Salarian Valern requires Shepard to [[spoiler:rescue him from Cerberus]], and the supposedly reasonable asari Tevos first states that, "The cruel and unfortunate truth is that while the Reapers focus on Earth, we can prepare and regroup," then refuses to give Shepard a vital clue until it is already too late. [[spoiler:This ends up resulting in LaserGuidedKarma when Thessia falls to the Reapers about as fast as Earth did once the Reapers actually reach it.]]

* Happens frequently in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''; depending on which side of the galaxy, many Imperial worlds are governed by corrupt and inept rulers who ignore any signs of possible danger thinking that sending a few thousand Imperial Guardsmen (or worse, Planetary Defense Forces, who unlike most Guardsmen tend to be either vanity affairs more fit for pageantry than combat or jackbooted thugs to oppress the local populace; neither type have much in actual military training) can stamp it out. Only for the threat to have escalated into near unstoppable, whether its an Ork WAAAGH!!!, a Chaos horde, or a Tyranid Hive Fleet, the imperial rulers would mostly remain oblivious to it, or just flee the system.

* ''Literature/WingsOfFire'': Queen Magnificent of the [=RainWing=]s completely ignores Glory's permission to find the missing dragons in their village, saying that it's not her loss. [[spoiler:This is what gets Glory to challenge her for the [=RainWing=] throne]].

* ''Film/ShinGodzilla'' is a dark analysis of this trope and ObstructiveBureaucracy. Godzilla only ever evolved to the point where it was a threat because Japanese ''and'' American scientists laughed off Dr. Goro Maki, the one person who predicted it's existence. Then when Dr. Hiromi Ogashira warned of Godzilla's imminent landfall, she was laughed off, and government officials instead told the public it wouldn't happen... only for their announcement to be disproven while they were saying it.

* Mayor Phlegmming in ''Film/OsmosisJones''.
* The Prime Minister in ''Film/QuatermassAndThePit''.

* Cornelius Fudge in the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' books and films, first becoming glaringly apparent in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix The Order of the Phoenix]]''. Fudge desperately tried to deny that BigBad Voldemort had returned, even setting up a smear campaign against Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore for even suggesting it. However, this all blows up in Fudge's face when Voldemort appears right outside the Ministry of Magic in front of some of the most powerful wizards in all of Britain, thus removing any and all possible doubt to his return. Fudge ended up getting the sack after the true nature of the threat became apparent, lingering as an advisor to his successor, but the moral outrage leads to Fudge going down as one of the worst Ministers of Magic in history. It's possible that Fudge was intended to sit in for Chamberlain, who had a similar approach to the rise of Hitler until [[FromBadToWorse it got worse]].

* The Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse gives us the Fallanassi, who are such pacifists that, even when billions of people are dying, they refuse to take up arms.

** A better example of this trope might be Cersei's attempts to rule Westeros. She undermines Tyrion as often as she can [[EvilIsPetty purely out of spite,]] and when given the opportunity [[StupidEvil she gets rid of all the experienced councilors and replaces them with toadies who are unable or unwilling to give her useful advice (which she seldom listens to anyway).]] Despite the aforementioned civil war threatening the destruction of her entire family, and the DeadlyDecadentCourt containing a large number of highly skilled opponents who will grab more power as soon as they can, she ignores all the long-term problems and focuses only on her own impulsive decisions. [[spoiler: As of the end of book five, this has come back to bite her REALLY hard]].

* The same stick you could use to find someone who used CulturalPosturing in ''ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog'' could also be used who also used this trope, at least within the original continuity. Quite notably, the Kingdom of Acorn and the entire Echidna race were like this very heavily.

* An alarming number of examples to be found within the world of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'':

** Padme qualifies as well. She leads a cadre of senators who want to defeat the proposed Republic bill to create a standing army. It really isn't her pacifism, but the fact that, given who the Republic is dealing with, she should know better. The Trade Federation quickly curbstomped her planet only ten years before and they're the ones bankrolling Dooku, along with a dozen other similar organizations. Though the fact she didn't trust then-Chancellor Palpatine's {{Cincinnatus}} routine might have played a part.
*** Later on, when Anakin confesses his genocidal ways to Padmé, she consoles him, telling him he's not as bad as he thinks he is. [[DoomedByCanon Predictably, this does not end well]].
** The New Republic in the sequel trilogy is guilty of this. So far they decided to simply support the Resistance instead of sending their fleets to aid them in fighting the First Order. This allowed the First Order to build their new superweapon which [[Film/TheForceAwakens they used to destroy the Republic capital in the Hosnian system.]]

* In a non-military example, the President and Vice President ([[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed who are clearly George W. Bush and Dick Cheney]]) in ''Film/TheDayAfterTomorrow'', particularly the latter. Neither is ready to accept (perhaps with some good reason) or act on the scientific predictions of doom in a century or so for half the world.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', this is Celestia's plan once Discord betrays them to serve Tirek. Hand her powers (along with Luna and Cadance's powers) to Twilight Sparkle and advise her to essentially hide and not tell her friends what happened. This fails spectacularly as Tirek finds out within seconds of imprisoning Celestia, thanks to Discord.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', this is Celestia's plan once Discord betrays them to serve Tirek. Hand her powers (along with Luna and Cadance's powers) to Twilight Sparkle and advise her to essentially hide and not tell her friends what happened. This fails spectacularly as Tirek finds out within seconds of imprisoning Celestia.