The Best Article Every Day publie un flo­ri­lège de pré­dic­tions péremp­toires qui démontrent, s’il le fallait encore, que la vision d’un leader est moins impor­tante que sa capa­cité à mobi­li­ser les foules. Petite sélec­tion de mise en bouche :

« We will bury you. »
Nikita Krushchev, Soviet Premier, pre­dic­ting Soviet com­mu­nism will win over U.S. capi­ta­lism, 1958.

« Everything that can be inven­ted has been invented. »
Charles H. Duell, an offi­cial at the US patent office, 1899.

« It will be gone by June. »
Variety, passing jud­ge­ment on rock ‘n roll in 1955.

« This anti­trust thing will blow over. »
Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft.

« It will be years – not in my time – before a woman will become Prime Minister. »
Margaret Thatcher, future Prime Minister, October 26th, 1969.

« Read my lips : NO NEW TAXES. »
George Bush, 1988.

« That virus is a pussycat. »
Dr. Peter Duesberg, molecular-biology pro­fes­sor at U.C. Berkeley, on HIV, 1988.

« Sensible and res­pon­sible women do not want to vote. »
Grover Cleveland, U.S. President, 1905.

« That the auto­mo­bile has prac­ti­cally reached the limit of its deve­lop­ment is sug­ges­ted by the fact that during the past year no impro­ve­ments of a radical nature have been introduced. »
Scientific American, Jan. 2 edition, 1909.

« Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible. »
Lord Kelvin, British mathe­ma­ti­cian and phy­si­cist, pre­sident of the British Royal Society, 1895.

« Radio has no future. »
Lord Kelvin, Scottish mathe­ma­ti­cian and phy­si­cist, former pre­sident of the Royal Society, 1897.

« Nuclear-powered vacuum clea­ners will pro­ba­bly be a reality in 10 years. »
Alex Lewyt, pre­sident of vacuum cleaner company Lewyt Corp., in the New York Times in 1955.

« Atomic energy might be as good as our present-day explo­sives, but it is unli­kely to produce any­thing very much more dangerous. »
Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister, 1939.

« It’s a great inven­tion but who would want to use it anyway ? »
Rutherford B. Hayes, U.S. President, after a demons­tra­tion of Alexander Bell’s tele­phone, 1876.

« X-rays will prove to be a hoax. »
Lord Kelvin, President of the Royal Society, 1883.

« The pho­no­graph has no com­mer­cial value at all. »
Thomas Edison, American inven­tor, 1880s.

[source]

Alain Van Kerckhoven