Too many of us still seem to labour under the delusion that Bermuda has unlimited financial resources at its disposal.

It’s almost as if we have embraced the comforting deception Bermuda can draw on a miraculously self-replenishing treasure trove left over from our buccaneering past, one secreted away in a crystal grotto somewhere beneath Hamilton which will pay our way for ever.

That we only had such a bottomless pirate chest at our disposal because the reality is our economic situation remains fragile.

Bermuda’s economy will require careful attention, thoughtful management and responsible behaviour on all of our parts if it is to recover over the long term — and the first, indispensable step towards recovery is accepting the reality of the new post-recessionary status quo.

But that’s a lot easier said than done.

After almost a decade of economic contraction, social dislocation and the emergence of a whole array of what might best be described, for want of a better term, as free-floating anxieties about Bermuda’s unsettled present and uncertain future, some retreats into magical thinking should probably be expected.

Many of the island’s old social certainties have been all but obliterated in recent times: Bermuda’s longstanding state of “overemployment” has been replaced by stubbornly entrenched pockets of unemployment and underemployment; a generally placid and law-abiding community has been shaken by historically unprecedented outbreaks of lethal violence; and, of course, both our private and public sectors are attempting to retrench and adjust to new local and international conditions.

The more a society drifts from its traditional cultural moorings, the more you will see overwrought attempts to deny or ignore some of the unhappier new realities we must face up to and, ultimately, contend with.

It’s an entirely characteristic reaction in any society, no matter how large or small, which has experienced so much wholesale change in so relatively short a time. There will be attempts to cling to vanished truths or even widely held half-truths, sometimes to the point of outright self-deception.

This is certainly the case as far as the economy is concerned.

Too many people in Bermuda still believe the old myth that government creates wealth rather than simply creating conditions which allows for wealth to be generated by private industry.

Too many people believe government can still afford to underwrite a jobs-for-life public sector and hugely generous civil service entitlements.

And far too many people steadfastly refuse to believe the simple truth that renewing confidence in Bermuda as a fiscally and politically stable jurisdiction is essential to maintaining our economic attractiveness and drawing new investments and businesses here in both the offshore and tourism-related sectors.

Eliminating this arrested and self-defeating way of thinking should be a priority. Shoring up, and eventually growing, our diminished economic infrastructure should, in fact, be the overriding imperative for all of our political figures, regardless of party affiliation or ideology.

For all of the other benefits we enjoy or can ever hope to enjoy as a community stem, in one way or another, from ensuring the economic security of Bermuda’s people.

Yet, too often in recent times we have seen politicians cavalierly work against these long-term interests of Bermuda and Bermudians. They have done so by encouraging the type of destabilising conditions which may provide them with short-term partisan advantage on the electoral chessboard but which actively diminish the prospects of the rest of us.

Much of this near-chaos was triggered by provocative political messaging expressly intended to bypass the critical faculties and instead inflame passions, incite tensions and exacerbate cultural divisions. Moving forward, it would be encouraging to think alarms sounded by the international business sector last week about the possibly very damaging consequences of such actions might have a sobering effect on those concerned: because we literally cannot afford a loss of international investor confidence in Bermuda at this delicate juncture. Our politicians are obligated to heal, not further divide, our community when it comes to our common economic future. What the marketing people call “community buy-in” is called for — ensuring every man, woman and child in Bermuda is made aware of our shared economic destiny and understands his and her role in seeing it is fulfilled.

For the reality is, the essential clockwork of the post-recessionary Bermuda economy clearly remains a mystery to many. And too often Bermudians are either uninformed — or sometimes deliberately misinformed — about how they directly benefit from an economic model increasingly based around a seemingly remote and obscure global financial services sector.

Contrary to what you might be tempted to believe, people can indeed still be persuaded by logic, evidence and reasoning rather than just purposefully inflammatory communications techniques.

Indeed, there’s a useful Bermudian precedent we should look to. Eighty years ago, the old Trade Development Board oversaw Bermuda’s transformation from a failing agricultural economy into the model for modern resort tourism.

Its mandate involved drawing international partners in the shipping, hotel and nascent airline industries to the island. But equally important was its effort to focus public attention on, and raise public awareness of, Bermuda’s wholesale shift of economic activity away from growing and exporting lilies and onions and towards tourism.

To that end, the board pursued what would now be called “community buy-in” by launching a combination of public education and public information campaigns to underscore to Bermudians as a whole that their rational self-interest as well as the public interest would be served in ensuring the new tourism venture succeeded.

In other words, everyone was encouraged to view themselves as stakeholders in the tourism industry; everyone had a role to play. These marketing stratagems were maintained and adapted to changing times and circumstances for many years. And the formula worked well for the best part of three generations as Bermudians grew up recognising tourism was an intrinsic part of the fabric of this community, not just a splendid hotel façade.

For several years now, former Premier Sir John Swan and economic and community commentator Larry Burchall have barnstormed the island and addressed any gathering which invites them on the subject of Bermuda’s parlous economic circumstances. They have also used traditional and new media strategies to effectively bang the drum on the need for Bermudians to present a united front on the question of economic development and growth.

Perhaps the time has come to formalise their informal roles by inviting them to head the sort of nonpartisan advisory panel this newspaper has more than once suggested should be convened to promote economic stability, reduce our vulnerability to internal disruptions and to encourage sustained growth by way of public education and information campaigns.

For unless locals come to understand we are all in the business of international business these days, the enduring delusion that Bermuda has unlimited financial resources at its disposal may eventually prove fatal to all of us.

Frankly without increased “community buy-in” on the economy there might not be a Bermudian community at all.