David's Blog

Wikipedia uses the phrase "Wilful Blindness" which is, apparently, also used as a legal term!

Wilful blindness (sometimes called ignorance of law, wilful ignorance or contrived ignorance or Nelsonian knowledge) is a term used in law to describe a situation in which a person seeks to avoid civil or criminal liability for a wrongful act by intentionally keeping himself or herself unaware of facts that would render him or her liable or implicated. In United States v. Jewell, the court held that proof of wilful ignorance satisfied the requirement of knowledge as to criminal possession and importation of drugs.

Although the term was originally—and still is—used in legal contexts, the phrase "wilful ignorance" has come to mean any situation in which people intentionally turn their attention away from an ethical problem that is believed to be important by those using the phrase (for instance, because the problem is too disturbing for people to want it dominating their thoughts, or from the knowledge that solving the problem would require extensive effort).

 There are so many examples of this kind of ignorance and increasing daily, wherever you look. I find the quotation from Isaac Asimov still applies today. It can only be wilful ignorance that forgets all the bad things people, not just Americans, have done and continue to do. But nobody talks about them. Why? Because it's uncomfortable. For whom? It's uncomfortable for every one of us, because in some measure we all allow stuff to happen:

• the wilful ignorance of the church and congregation, particularly the Christian Churches, towards the massive child abuse over centuries - can only be described as condoning it until it became "uncool" to do so, very, very recently
• the same can be said for a variety of "power groups", wherever there is an elite, abuse is taking place
• the stupidity of thinking one country can solve all its own problems - Coronavirus as the current example 
• the wilful ignorance of the majority of the people of the things done in their name

The worst in my view, is that last. That we - you and me - do nothing whilst our Governments and functionaries do what they like in the name of the people's good, while all of us see that there is only a small number of people for whom it's good and they don't include you and me - although, we do usually get stuck with the bill in the form of taxes. 

So what did you do about it? What did I do about it? Complained.

With today's river of information available to everyone, there is no excuse for ignorance. What's missing is the action to step back from the illusion and into reality and then act accordingly. And that takes a lot of courage and perseverance.