Gayla Benefield was just doing her job — until she uncovered an awful secret about her hometown that meant its mortality rate was 80 times higher than anywhere else in the U.S. But when she tried to tell people about it, she learned an even more shocking truth: People didn’t want to know. In a talk that’s part history lesson, part call-to-action, Margaret Heffernan demonstrates the danger of "willful blindness" and praises ordinary people like Benefield who are willing to speak up.
Great video!
The best example of willfull blindness of course environmental crisis, where many people just choose not to know about what’s going on around.
There is, unfortunantely also some of this stuff in the permaculture movement too. I list some examples:
1. The unwillinglity of some people to admit that permaculture needs rigorous and science-based rewiewing. All the time. It is not quaranteed that all of PC aproaches work or are the best alternatives. One example of this the reluctancy to admit that manures, biofertilizers and mixed grazing of different animals poses a risk of breeding new pathogens. Most of humanitys infectious diseases have jumped unto us from some another animals species. The list of these diseases includes: small pox, tuberculosis, flu (all flu viruses share an ancestry of bird viruses, and viruses still occasionally circulate between humans and other animals), yersiniosis, cholera, plague, toxoplasmosis, typhus, salmonella, etc.
Another is that invasive alien species are often dangerous. They can overrun natural ecosystems.
This must be acknowledged, and also acted upon.
Also we urgently need scientific studies of the performance of permaculture methods in the terms of farming.
Regards, Aapo
Awesome!
Willful Blindness is a disease of modern society and developed countries where the values are material consumption and the constant persuit of leisures and social success. I agree with Aapo about the blindness of the people on the state of global warming and its effect on the biodiversity of the Earth. And permaculture as any other approaches to limit and reverse the damage caused by climate change should be rigorous and based on experience and scientific research.
Best regards, Uyen