the tenth man
In the zombie movie “world war z”, gerry lane (brad pitt) travels to israel, to learn how the country ‘seemingly prepared in advance’ for the arrival of an otherwise unexpected zombie pandemic.
Gerry speaks to jurgen warmbrunn (ludi borken), who describes the fictional case of the tenth man 1.
The gist, is that on several occasions throughout israels history (following voting on matters of national security), the country suffered as a result of unanimous dismissal of concern.
A policy was put in place, such that, in any event whereby nine of ten voters on any matter of national security unanimously come to the same conclusion – the tenth must automatically assume the opposite position, and begin to prepare 2, As if the other nine are wrong.
In this way, when any majority are looking only in one direction, there is at least someone monitoring or exploring a complimentary opposing perspective.