The Unthinkable Happens

·         "I am shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here," the police chief told Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca (1942)[1].

·         "No one could have conceivably imagined suicide bombers burrowing into our society and them emerging all on the same day to fly their aircraft--fly US aircraft into buildings full of innocent people and show no remorse," President Bush said five days after the attacks[2].

·         "Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders' equity, myself included, are in a state of shocked disbelief," Alan Greenspan told the U.S. Congress during the meltdown of 2008.

There are various reasons for shocked disbelief. For the fictional police chief, it was humorous hypocrisy (as he spoke, the croupier was handing over his winnings). For President Bush,