85% of our lives is affected by willful blindness
and why do we choose to limit ourselves
Willful Blindness, as
described
by
the
dictionary,
is
a
persons
ability
to
disregard facts that
fail
to
meet
their
expectations
or
contradicts ones inner
model of reality.
In
the legal world, they
see
it
as
closing
one's eyes to the high
probability
a
fact
exists, in ‘laymen’s
terms’ its turning a
blind eye.
“We could know, and
should
know,
but
don’t know because
it
makes
us
feel
better
not
to
know.”
Margaret
Heffernan, 2012.
So why do we choose to
limit
our
knowledge
and
suppress
our
freedom?
Margaret
Heffernan,
Author
of
Willful
Blindness
examined
this
examines
the
phenomena
across
a
number of communities,
institutions
and
companies across the
globe. Her findings are what is interesting; 85% of these communities,
institutions and companies that partook in the studies for willful
blindness, admit to having a problem of sorts but choose not to
correct it.
The act of willful blindness can be seen moving through our societies
everyday, when we see our politicians lying, police failing to protect the
very people they were meant to serve, the wealthy buying their way out of
jail and the banks bankrupting the very nations that maintain them.
It enters our home through our personal relationships, Heffernan illustrates
this through a multitude of case studies ranging from dictatorships to tragic
love affairs, because “the more tightly we focus, the more we leave out”.
Love is blind, willfully blind.