216: WILLFUL BLINDNESS

I appreciated the person who made the comment about willful blindness on the blog post #214. I watched the link to a video and for those who didn’t read the comment I thought it would be helpful to post on it. 

 

 

The author, Margaret Heffernan states that the biggest threats and dangers we face are the ones we don't see – not because they're secret or invisible, but because we're willfully blind.

Willful Blindness is a legal concept which means that if there is information that you could know and SHOULD know, but you somehow manage NOT to know. The Lord deems that you are willfully blind if you have chosen NOT to know. Those who share, blog, teach, lecture, comment about topics that others would rather NOT know or listen to…but probably SHOULD know… are sometimes called apostates. In the work environment they are called “whistle-blowers”. Research has shown that “whistleblowers” are actually very loyal and dedicated to the institutions they are exposing the truth about. The reason why they speak up and the reason why they insist on seeing and saying the things they do is because they care so much for the institution and want to keep it healthy. 

 

Here are some great quotes from author’s book, “Willful Blindness: Why We Ignore the Obvious at Our Peril” by Margaret Heffernan.

• “When we care about people, we care less about money, and when we care about money, we care less about people.”

•  “The combination of power, optimism and abstract thinking makes powerful people more certain. The more cut-off they are from others, the more confident they are that they are right.”

• “You cannot fix a problem that you refuse to acknowledge.

 

I actually think that one of the roles of a true prophet is to be a “whistleblower” to the religion whose people who are being led astray.