“When I first began writing for The Times, I was naïve about many things. But my biggest misconception was this: I actually believed that influential people could be moved by evidence, that they would change their views if events completely refuted their beliefs,” Paul Krugman wites in today’s Times.

Not long before his suicide in 1935 the German satirist and columnist Kurt Tucholsky lamented that although he used to be one of Germany’s most popular columnists he had not succeeded in forcing even one policeman to resign.
(Unfortunately I could not find the exact source, so all I can offer for now is a paraphrase.)

So much for the power of words.