Blindness by Choice

Humans tend to pity the physically blind ones of their kind. The fact that blind ones will never see the sun, their loved ones or any color or shape at all must surely make their lives infinitely worse than people who can see, they tend to think, and then easily conclude that the lives of the blind ones must be miserable without sight. However, this might not be the case at all. Someone’s life is not necessarily worse off because they are blind; their lives could easily be better than many others out there. The reality is that they are not the ones who are really blind, it is the others who can see but willfully choose not to. Most humans, for the sake of mental and physical safety, regularly choose to ignore what is going on all around them whether it be about themselves, others or nature. They program themselves to see what is to their benefit and ignore the rest which they do not wish to see or feel; some sort of a defense mechanism. This means that through blindness by choice -or willful blindness- they can easily turn down someone who needs help, refuse the signals that the world is sending to tell them it is dying, disregard the crises in their own country or ghost people they once cared about but decided they did not anymore, and this type of deliberate blindness is much worse than being physically blind.

It is one thing to be blind through means that are not in one’s hand, but quite another to blind oneself by choice; one is imposed on them while the other they impose on themselves. One might be inclined to say, ‘I never deliberately blind myself,’ but every single human, even the physically blind ones, does it to some extent. It is impossible not to. This may be attributed to human nature since it manifests in every single human; there even is a common saying that goes, ‘Humans are selfish inherently,’ meaning that every single human looks for their own gains in every situation. In other words, more often than not they choose not to see what really is happening, and instead try and shape the situation according to their own reality which would be to their benefit rather than detriment. Still, they do so not because they want to but because to protect themselves from harm. If they do not put up such a defense mechanism they might get physically or psychologically damaged. This does not make willful blindness human nature though. On the contrary,  this makes it a choice they deliberately make. Yet, it is quite easy to blame human nature and weasel out of the situation since they already chose to blind themselves. This, in turn, allows them to put up their defenses, deceive themselves into believing they are in over their heads with their own problems, and that they do not have the means, energy or time to help others because they need to focus on their own problems first. Basically, they just push bad things in their life and around them under the rug and pretend as if all is well. Therefore, the real saying should go, “Humans are not inherently selfish but selfish by choice.”

Maybe, it is not selfishness at all but fear that pushes humans to blind themselves. Consider a blue-collar employee who works in a coal mine. They are grateful for the money they make because they can afford to feed their family through it, but they also know that they are exposed to various pulmonary diseases by coming into contact with high amounts of toxic gases such as carbon dioxide. They have two choices here: they either contact the authorities and their peers to explain the dangers of their working conditions or ignore it and keep working even though it will eventually result in a serious illness or even death. If they go with the first choice they might solve the problem for the better, but most likely they will be deemed ungrateful for the job they are given and lose it because there are always others willing to do the job someone is not willing. Hence, someone in such a position will almost always choose the second option and condemn themselves because they cannot imagine what would their family eat if they were out of a job. However, in theory, they should not be alone; because they are not the only one who is exposed to pulmonary diseases, everyone else who works with them is as well. Therefore, it should be possible for all the workers to come together and fight for their jobs as well as lives. Unfortunately, since every worker chose to willfully blind themselves, they are averse to others which makes it impossible for workers to become a union to fight back.

It might be alright to blind oneself by choice to be protected mentally and physically from harm on some occasions, but only for the short-term. Problems that are not addressed do not disappear or solve themselves when they are pushed under a rug. On the contrary, they accumulate and become even deeper-rooted problems that cripple the individual or the whole of humanity in the long run. No matter how hard one runs away from their problems they will eventually have to face them, one way or the other. Therefore, one should check whether they blinded themselves by choice before pitying the blind ones because it is much better to be physically blind than being willfully blind; just as how lack of knowledge is much better than the refusal of it.