Psychology Today | 13.05.2026 20:36
Historically a white elephant was a gift so expensive and useless that the recipient could not get rid of it — a burden maintained out of embarrassment rather than logic. The phrase has migrated. Today it refers to issues that are uncomfortable to talk about, and hence easier to shove underneath the verbal table than to debate and eliminate. It is a sadly fitting label for entire political architectures: systems of concentrated privilege that operate in full public view; topics that are documented by international bodies, reported by mainstream media, and debated in parliaments — and yet persist without serious correction.
