# Terrible, terrible decision you made there, sir. Can't see how you could've done any better, though. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 10, 2010, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-terrible-decision-you-made-there-sir-cant-see-how-you-couldve-done-any-better-though/546256 "2010-07-10T22:55:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-terrible-decision-you-made-there-sir-cant-see-how-you-couldve-done-any-better-though/546256/21 "2010-07-11T03:25:59Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > The **Babylon 5** episode “[Believers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Believers_(Babylon_5)).” You can’t really fault Dr. Franklin for saving the boy, but the results are not good. **RealityChuck** , you seem a good sort, and I like your posts. But good God, man, you’ve the most irresponsible sig since **Gipper80** joined up with his “The bombing begins in five minutes” sig. Use some judgment! ---
**Author:** ![audit1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@audit1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audit1)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-terrible-decision-you-made-there-sir-cant-see-how-you-couldve-done-any-better-though/546256/22 "2010-07-11T03:35:37Z")
The Fourth Doctor in Genesis of the Daleks has an opportunity to end the Dalek menace once and for all but decides he has not the right to do so. The Tenth Doctor in The Christmas Invasion disagrees with a decision Harriet Jone PM makes and decides to bring down the goverment. No golden age for Britain and Harold Saxon becomes PM. Not his best decision. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-terrible-decision-you-made-there-sir-cant-see-how-you-couldve-done-any-better-though/546256/23 "2010-07-11T03:48:35Z")
How about Peter Parker? He wasn’t a cop, or even really a super hero. He was a kid with suddenly developed spider-powers. He had no obligation to stop the thief, but he had the ability to do it. Later, the thief murders Gentle Uncle Ben, and rice was never the same thereafter. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-terrible-decision-you-made-there-sir-cant-see-how-you-couldve-done-any-better-though/546256/24 "2010-07-11T04:04:45Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > I recently read Mary Doria Russell’s _The Sparrow_, where this kind of thing is a major theme. In the sequel, _Children of God_, some things arguably turn out for the best, but not until after lots of very bad consequences for all involved. > > Early in _The Sparrow_, alien radio transmissions are picked up on Earth. These aren’t intended as messages to other planets, they’re entertainment broadcasts. While the UN is still debating what to do in response, the Society of Jesus puts together a small team of researchers (about 50/50 Jesuits and “civilians”) and sends them off to make contact with the alien civilization and learn what they can about them. > > Although things go pretty well at first, the humans misunderstand some significant points about the alien cultures and fail to realize that there are other points on which they are wholly ignorant. I don’t want to say too much because the plot of the first book largely involves learning what went wrong and why, but there were definite violations of the Prime Directive involved. (I guess the Jesuits don’t watch a lot of _Star Trek_!) It’s not much of a spoiler to say that, due largely to their well-intentioned and apparently reasonable decisions, all but one member of the team die on the alien planet – and the survivor who returns to Earth has been horribly mutilated. A number of aliens also die as a direct result of human interference, and by the second book human influence has helped lead to a full-scale war between two alien cultures. > > I’ll give one specific example that doesn’t give away too much of importance in the book. After things go very badly wrong on the alien planet, two of the humans are taken in by a wealthy merchant who had befriended their team. He offers them [alien word], which the human linguist doesn’t fully understand but takes to mean some formal sort of protection or sanctuary. And in fact it does mean this, but the devil is in the details. The linguist accepts the offer on behalf of himself and his companion. What they don’t realize until it’s too late is that this involves ritual cutting that both symbolically and literally renders the recipient unable to fully fend for himself. Due to their different anatomy this procedure isn’t all _that_ damaging to the aliens and isn’t especially risky. For humans, it’s basically a butchering of their hands. One of the humans, already in poor health, bleeds to death after the procedure. The other, the one who lives to return to Earth, never really recovers, although he eventually regains some function with the use of prostheses. > > Actually, I think this counts from both the perspective of the human linguist and the alien merchant. The humans didn’t realize what would be involved, but the linguist later realizes that the merchant had attempted to explain it to him. The merchant had no idea the procedure would be so damaging to the humans. He was trying to do right by them. Odds were good the humans would be killed if they weren’t under the formal protection of a prominent local, and this ritual was apparently the only recognized way in this culture for the humans to be considered harmless wards of the merchant. This book was the one I immediately thought of. I read eons ago there was to be a movie version starring Brad Pitt; but it never came to be because the special effects that would be required, at the time, weren’t advanced enough ---
**Author:** ![Novalyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/22d042/32.png) [@Novalyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novalyne)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-terrible-decision-you-made-there-sir-cant-see-how-you-couldve-done-any-better-though/546256/25 "2010-07-11T04:37:59Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > I recently read Mary Doria Russell’s _The Sparrow_, where this kind of thing is a major theme. In the sequel, _Children of God_, some things arguably turn out for the best, but not until after lots of very bad consequences for all involved. This was the book that I came in to post about. On the surface, every decision made by the lead character seems reasonable, until you learn that many important aspects of the alien society have been misunderstood. In fact, there’s even a quote in the book about this: _The mission, he thought, probably failed because of a series of logical, reasonable, carefully considered decisions, each of which seemed like a good idea at the time. Like most colossal disasters._ Good reading. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-terrible-decision-you-made-there-sir-cant-see-how-you-couldve-done-any-better-though/546256/26 "2010-07-11T05:57:15Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > Basically, humanity has become dependent on a system of FLT wormholes linking all of human civilization and maintained by hyperintelligent AIs. Sadly, these AIs have decided to exterminate most of humanity and enslave the remainder. (Don’t they always?) Because the wormhole network is central to the AI plan, Prime Minister Gladstone opts to destroy that network. This prevents the robo-pocalypse, but utterly destroys a human civilization based upon cheap and instantaneous interstellar transport. > > I don’t think this quite fits with the OP, though. Gladstone knew precisely what the negative consequences of her decision would be - she just decided that they were the least-bad option. And she was probably correct. I think her title is CEO, not PM. ISTR the AIs motivations were more nuanced than that; I remember it being a little ambiguous because their plans were revealed by a rogue AI who was probably lying. In the third and fourth books of the series, the civilization is a theocracy, and everyone is basically immortal. The fastest form of transport involves ships that basically liquefy the human body, and they are reconstituted upon arrival. It turns out that the immortality is given by the aforementioned AIs, and the heroes cut humanity off from this to topple the AIs. Again, probably doesn’t fit the OP per se. ---
**Author:** ![auRa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@auRa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auRa)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-terrible-decision-you-made-there-sir-cant-see-how-you-couldve-done-any-better-though/546256/27 "2010-07-11T13:59:28Z")
Came in to post _The Sparrow_ because it’s such a kick-ass book but I see I’ve been beaten several times over, so instead I’ll offer up the behavior of Naomi Watts’ character in _The Ring_. Tortured soul? Wreaking vengeance? What could be a better way to put things to rest than to find the body of the poor girl and give her a proper burial, right? Except not. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-terrible-decision-you-made-there-sir-cant-see-how-you-couldve-done-any-better-though/546256/28 "2010-07-11T14:08:28Z")
Harry Potter not making a concerted effort to tell someone in authority what was going on in any book. There was always some excuse like Dumbledore kept dodging him or some other reason. Of course, if he talked to an adult there wouldn’t have been much of a story. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-terrible-decision-you-made-there-sir-cant-see-how-you-couldve-done-any-better-though/546256/29 "2010-07-11T14:10:44Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > How about Peter Parker? He wasn’t a cop, or even really a super hero. He was a kid with suddenly developed spider-powers. He had no obligation to stop the thief, but he had the ability to do it. Later, the thief murders Gentle Uncle Ben, and rice was never the same thereafter. You only brought that up for the rice joke. I should think a bear wisecrack would have worked better. Anyway, Pete’s not quite what I was looking for. He **should** have stopped the thief, but, especially in the movie, no one but the promoter would have blamed him for letting the guy go if someone else hadn’t died as a result. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-terrible-decision-you-made-there-sir-cant-see-how-you-couldve-done-any-better-though/546256/30 "2010-07-11T15:46:26Z")
How about Baltar at the beginning of BSG? I’ll grant that industrial espionage isn’t exactly an honourable thing to do, but what’s the worst that could possibly happen? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-terrible-decision-you-made-there-sir-cant-see-how-you-couldve-done-any-better-though/546256/31 "2010-07-11T15:46:30Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > **RealityChuck** , you seem a good sort, and I like your posts. But good God, man, you’ve the most irresponsible sig since **Gipper80** joined up with his “The bombing begins in five minutes” sig. Use some judgment! Should I change the color to yellow? In James Tiptree, Jr’s, “Your Haploid Heart,” humans follow a particular policy for characterizing alien races: they’re considered human if they’re interfertile with human. This is not unreasonable – if the genes can mix, the species will mix, with various issues that causes. However, in the story, it nearly causes aliens to perform self-genocide. In Fredrick Brown’s “Nightmare in Blue,” the protagonist does act reasonably – his son is drowning, but he can’t swim to save him so he goes for help. As in all of Brown’s “Nightmare” stories, there’s a twist and things go terribly wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-terrible-decision-you-made-there-sir-cant-see-how-you-couldve-done-any-better-though/546256/32 "2010-07-11T16:02:31Z")
In the Temeraire series, the main character makes an honorable (but treasonous) decision that results in the successful invasion of England by the French with all the attendant tragedies of looting, murder and rape. Actually, I’m not quite sure how the series is going to recover from this one – the last book was pretty much a complete downer and the next in the series which is just about to be released doesn’t sound any more sprightly. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2010, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-terrible-decision-you-made-there-sir-cant-see-how-you-couldve-done-any-better-though/546256/33 "2010-07-12T06:53:59Z")
In the book _The Firm_ by John Grisham, upon graduating from law school, Mitch McDeere has his pick of law firms and makes the fairly astute choice of going for the law firm that offered most money (and which seemed to have a nice, family-friendly work culture). Big mistake. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2010, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-terrible-decision-you-made-there-sir-cant-see-how-you-couldve-done-any-better-though/546256/34 "2010-07-12T13:15:38Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Anyway, Pete’s not quite what I was looking for. He **should** have stopped the thief, but, especially in the movie, no one but the promoter would have blamed him for letting the guy go if someone else hadn’t died as a result. Maybe Peter Parker doesn’t count, but what about Bruce Wayne? Early in his careerhe accidentally knocked the man in the red hood into a vat of acid. Result: the guy turned into The Joker and started slaughtering thousands of people. Arguably, Gotham would have been better off if Bruce had never donned the cowl in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2010, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-terrible-decision-you-made-there-sir-cant-see-how-you-couldve-done-any-better-though/546256/35 "2010-07-12T13:38:43Z")
It’s the bread and butter of horror novels. Take _Cujo_ off the top of my head - the mother makes every perfectly reasonable decision, but she doesn’t have perfect knowledge so first she doesn’t know the rabid dog leaves the area when she can’t see him and then when she finally goes for it, he hasn’t left and then it doesn’t really matter because her son has died already from being in the car for several days. Nothing better she could have done with the information she had at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2010, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-terrible-decision-you-made-there-sir-cant-see-how-you-couldve-done-any-better-though/546256/36 "2010-07-12T15:18:42Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Maybe Peter Parker doesn’t count, but what about Bruce Wayne? Early in his careerhe accidentally knocked the man in the red hood into a vat of acid. Result: the guy turned into The Joker and started slaughtering thousands of people. Arguably, Gotham would have been better off if Bruce had never donned the cowl in the first place. I didn’t say Parker didn’t count; just that I wasn’t sure. I can see the argument for stopping the robber and for ignoring him. In the movie, it would be almost unbelievable if he HAD stopped the robber. As for the Joker: I’m not convinced he wasn’t headed that way no matter what happened to him. Bats, at most, pushed him into a particular manifestation of his homicidal psychosis. If it hadn’t been that night, it would’ve been the next; if he hadn’t become a murderous clown, it would have been a murderous dentist or something. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2010, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-terrible-decision-you-made-there-sir-cant-see-how-you-couldve-done-any-better-though/546256/37 "2010-07-12T15:38:58Z")
Star Wars - “Hold your fire. There are no life forms. It must have short-circuited.” Poor guy is just trying to save some credits and turbolaser maintenance, and winds up bringing down the Empire. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2010, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-terrible-decision-you-made-there-sir-cant-see-how-you-couldve-done-any-better-though/546256/38 "2010-07-12T15:54:46Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > Star Wars - “Hold your fire. There are no life forms. It must have short-circuited.” Poor guy is just trying to save some credits and turbolaser maintenance, and winds up bringing down the Empire. [Don’t forget putting a band of genocidal maniacs into power.](http://www.theforce.net/swtc/holocaust.html) The ghosts of all the dead Ewoks spit on that guy. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2010, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-terrible-decision-you-made-there-sir-cant-see-how-you-couldve-done-any-better-though/546256/39 "2010-07-12T17:33:01Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > You only brought that up for the rice joke. I should think a bear wisecrack would have worked better. > > Anyway, Pete’s not quite what I was looking for. He **should** have stopped the thief, but, especially in the movie, no one but the promoter would have blamed him for letting the guy go if someone else hadn’t died as a result. NO, it fits the OP, at least the original comic book version. In the (canonical, all bow before Ditko) Book, Peter thinks that he might run out of these new powers-- why waste them on a random hood? And-- Uncle Ben had already lent his name to the rice. His death didn’t change this at all. And the bear was named for him (ironically, inspired by an editorial defending bears by JJ Jameson in the Daily Bugle) after his death anyhow. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2010, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-terrible-decision-you-made-there-sir-cant-see-how-you-couldve-done-any-better-though/546256/40 "2010-07-12T17:40:50Z")
Wesley in season 3 of _Angel._ Every thing he read, everything he found out told him that the prophecy WILL coem true and Angel WILL kill Connor (and, to an extent, this is true…Angel (sort of) kills him at the end of season 4 as a catalyst for the reality-altering spell.) He felt he was doing what was best, both for Connor, to save his life, and for Angel, to spare him from killing his own son. Then, in his own words, had his throat cut and all his friends abandon him. ☹ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-terrible-decision-you-made-there-sir-cant-see-how-you-couldve-done-any-better-though/546256.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrible-terrible-decision-you-made-there-sir-cant-see-how-you-couldve-done-any-better-though/546256.md?page=3)