Money is just one of the forces that blind us to information and issues which we could pay attention to - but don't. It exacerbates and often rewards all the other drivers of willful blindness; our preference for the familiar, our love for individuals and for big ideas, a love of busyness and our dislike of conflict and change, the human instinct to obey and conform and our skill at displacing and diffusing responsibility. All of these operate and collaborate with varying intensities at different moments in our lives. The common denominator is that they all make us protect our sense of self-worth, reducing dissonance and conferring a sense of security, however illusory. In some ways, they all act like money; making us feel good at first, with consequences we don't see. We wouldn't be so blind if our blindness didn't deliver rewards; the benefit of comfort and ease.
About This Quote
About Margaret Heffernan
Margaret Heffernan was American entrepreneur, ceo, writer and keynote speaker. Margaret Heffernan is an entrepreneur, CEO, writer and keynote speaker. She is currently a professor of Practice at the University of Bath School of Management in the UK and, in 2021, was inaugurated into the Thinkers50 Hall of Fame for her lasting contribution to Management Thinking. Read more on Wikipedia →
Themes
- Money — Thoughts on wealth, value, and material pursuits