Our last Ambassador there, Graham Martin, and his staff answered the riddle by conjuring illusions, misleading Washington (and finally themselves) about Saigon's strength and Hanoi's weaknesses -all to keep Congressional support for the South Vietnamese intact.
TV, films and optical illusions work by misleading the brain about what the eye is seeing.
Indeed, many well-known visual illusions rely on misleading contextual cues to create misperceptions of size, length or orientation (e.g., in the Ebbinghaus, Muller-Lyer or rod-and-frame illusions, respectively).
Generally not misled by grand illusions nor the calls of nihilism, the Chinese and Italian minds comprehend with an unparalleled acuity the interconnected ups and downs of historical cycles and fully appreciate, when it manifests itself, the sign of genius unaffected by the passage of time.
However, Noë, while fully endorsing the underlying concept, in fact argues that it is misleading to think of this as an illusion (2002, 2004).
Results from inadequate monitoring are misleading for their information quality and are dangerous because they create the illusion that something useful has been done.
"We have this sophisticated capability that's rational and works well most of the time; but it can also be misleading" — in the same way the eye is fooled by optical illusions.
Inflated earnings artificially lower its P/E and create an illusion of value during that time, per Figure 2. Why Earnings Are Misleading: In fiscal 2018, GAAP net income grew by 134% year-over-year (YoY) while NOPAT fell 33%.
It means misleading information -- misplaced, irrelevant, fragmented or superficial information -- information that creates the illusion of knowing something, but which in fact leads one away from knowing... What Orwell feared were those who would ban books.
