1. Have you ever heard the term willful blindness? What do you think that it means? What could this mean in relation to health?
2. When it comes to health-related issues such as depression, child abuse, domestic violence, drug abuse, or disease, in what ways do people exercise willful blindness? Why would they want to? 3. Margaret Heffernan tells the story of a Montana town that had an 80 percent higher rate of disease than anywhere else in the country. If the people of this town had not been so willfully blind and had listened to Gayla Benefield, how might the health and lives of the people in this town been different? 4. Why do you think that none of the medical professionals in the town of Libby, Montana, questioned the health issues that were plaguing their town? 5. Based on this video, how might you have reacted differently if you had been a member of the community in Libby, Montana? 6. When it comes to health-related issues or problems, how do you know when it is necessary to contact a medical professional? Are there exceptions to this? 7. Can you think of a situation in your life where you were willfully blind? If so, why do you think that you were willfully blind? 8. Do you believe the saying, “ignorance is bliss” to be true? What other stories that Margaret Heffernan tells in the video illustrate the saying “ignorance is bliss”?
This is a legal term. Just to get you started, someone that practices being willfully blind, remains ignorant of the situation. They do not want to know the facts so that they can remain "in the dark" or willfully blind. When you do something "willfully" you are doing it and you KNOW that you are doing it. Doing it on purpose. Blind - not seeing the whole picture - or any of the knowledge or facts that you need.
