WILFUL BLINDNESS - WHY WE IGNORE THE OBVIOUS AT OUR PERIL

MARGARET HEFFERNAN

PENGUIN BOOKS, 2011

REVIEW BY DR. CATHIE KOA DUNSFORD

In her introduction to this book, Heffernan quotes from T.S Eliot’s Four Quartets:

Go, go, go said the bird: human kind
Cannot bear too much reality

Never a more true word, if you believe all you read here. Heffernan more than convinces us of these words in a thoroughly well-researched, authoritative and challenging text that most readers will welcome for her insights and her arguments.

She begins by showing us, in everyday life, how we coat over the hard facts of life, telling our children or loved ones, that a dead relative has flown away with the angels or “went home” rather than dealing with the actual realities of the situation. We perpetuate the ignorance with our concern and we help make it harder for others to come to terms with the truth.

Throughout this volume, Heffernan shows examples of how we enact this wilful blindness, from daily family examples to the very harmful, knowing wilful blindness of corporate executives, who often have a vested interest in ‘protecting us’ from the truth and in perpetuating lies in order to make gross profits.

By the end of this book, you realise just how complicit so many if us are in this game of wilful blindness and how much it affects and destroys our lives.

It becomes yet another addiction, a way we play into the game of life so that we avoid the hard patches and convince ourselves and others it is better to pretend that everything is really ok.

In one of the most powerful chapters, Just Following Orders, Heffernan shows us just how dangerous this position can be, whether we are working for Hitler’s regime and feel we have to follow orders just to stay alive or for a modern corporate where we are urged to lie in order for the truth about the chemicals we are using to poison the earth or our own bodies directly via medicine. It is just the same. We are all buying into wilful blindness, a disease that urges us to remain silent or lie in order to protect the status quo.

In all her examples, whether daily life or work or corporate or political intrigue, Hefferann leaves us in no doubt that by supporting or playing into wilful blindness we are contributing to a crime together. We are selling ourselves and our civilisations short by accepting the convenient rather than the unpalatable. Just as Al Gore argued in the Inconvenient Truth.There are still many climate change deniers who would rather ignore the facts and let us wallow in ignorant oblivion. Greed plays a part in this. It works for many business people to maintain the status quo.

In her chapter, Demoralising Work, she also shows us convincingly, through case studies, how money can blind us to our social relationships, creating a sense of false self-sufficiency that discourages co-operation and mutual support.

Throughout the book, Heffernan proves, in numerous ways, that when we care about people, we care less about money and when we care about money we care less about people.

Mike Moore’s documentary film Capitalism: A Love Story, also shows this with convincing detail. How we ever got to the stage, as a civilisation, where employers could take out life policies on employees who they deem vulnerable and then cash in on their deaths, leaving their partners and families without any monetary or social support, is alarming. It is also morally indefensible.

Heffernan also paints a picture of an uncaring society that puts greed above welfare of those we love.

In the end we would rather believe myths than the truth if it means less work for us.

Heffernan’s timely book is a wake up call before it is too late. We can take heed of the studies she documents and the arguments she forwards as a result of this research. Or we could continue to bury our heads in the sands, like emus, and pretend it is not happening around us.

We can choose to play into wilful blindness, or we can actively recognise and resist this mass addiction and numbing of our intelligence and senses. In the end, it is up to us.

This is a compelling and convincing read. It is a story told with intelligence and vigour and caring. It is anything but a dry academic read. Get this book and discover it for yourselves. It is never too late to wake up and change. Let’s hope Heffernan’s warnings do not just fall on deaf ears. Or wilful blindness.

[c] Dr. Cathie Koa Dunsford, 2011.

Cathie Koa Dunsford [Te Rarawa/Ngapuhi/Hawai’ian/Croatian] is author of 23 books in print and translation in USA, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Germany and Turkey, including the popular Cowrie econovel series featuring strong wahine toa and eco activists from the Pacific region. She has taught Literature, Creative Writing and Publishing at Auckland University since 1975. Dr. Dunsford is director of Dunsford Publishing Consultants, which has brought 197 new and award winning Pacific authors into print internationally: http://www.dunsfordpublishing.comHYPERLINK “http://www.dunsfordpublishing.com/”  HYPERLINK “http://www.dunsfordpublishing.com/” http://www.dunsfordpublishing.comHYPERLINK “http://www.dunsfordpublishing.com/” http://www.dunsfordpublishing.comHYPERLINK “http://www.dunsfordpublishing.com/” http://www.dunsfordpublishing.comCath is recipient of two major literary grants from Creative New Zealand Arts Council and was International Woman of the Year in Publishing in 1997. She is on the Board of the Asia Pacific Writer’s Network and featured on a panel of experienced Pacific Artists at Artspeak Pasifika, 2010, funded by CNZ, NZ Arts Council. Cath Koa has performed her work at the Frankfurt, Leipzig and Istanbul Bookfairs. A documentary of her work was directed for Maori Television by Makerita Urale. She tours the world performing from the books with traditional Maori waiata and taonga puoro. She was Opening Keynote Speaker for the Oceanic Conference on Climate Change: Oceans, Islands and Skies at the University of the SouthPacific, Fiji, Sept, 2010 speaking about Kaitiakitanga: A Climate Change of Consciousness. Contact: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)