The South African Civil Society Information Service

The Dangers of 'Wilful Blindness'

28 Aug 2013

Wilful blindness is a legal concept, which means, if there is information that you could know and you should know, but you somehow manage not to know; the law deems that you're wilfully blind. You have chosen not to know, says, author, academic and entrepreneur, Margaret Heffernan in this TED Talk.

"You could see wilful blindness in the run up to the Iraq war," she argues.

Wilful blindness is rife in big corporations, Heffernan contends. In large corporations, when employees were asked, "Are there issues at work that people are afraid to raise?" -- 85% of people said "yes", as they continued to remain silent about those issues. "There is a profound mythology around whistle-blowers, which says that they are all crazy," contends Heffernan.

In a talk that’s part history lesson, part call-to-action, Heffernan demonstrates the danger of "wilful blindness".

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You can find this page online at http://sacsis.org.za/site/article/1765.