Margaret Heffernan was born in Texas, raised in Holland, and educated at Cambridge University. She worked for five years at BBC Radio and is now Visiting Professor of Entrepreneurship at Simmons College in Boston and Executive in Residence at Babson College. She can be reached at her website www.mheffernan.com.

Anyone who has ever tried to stop smoking knows that it is a filthy and unhealthy habit that may kill you. Yet people continue to smoke in face of the facts. This kind of self-destructiveness is one ingredient in what Heffernan calls "willful blindness." In this timely work, she offers examples of this stubborn habit in the Catholic church, the SEC, Nazi Germany, Bernard Madoff''s investors, BP's unethical maneuvers after the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the military in Afghanistan, and the competitive ethos of subprime mortgage lenders. She also takes a hard look at how this willful blindness can develop in private lives, corporations, and institutions.

Among the obstacles to clear-sightedness and proper ethical response are the homogeneity of our lives (what journalist Bill Bishop calls "clustering in communities of like-mindedness"); being oblivious to the flaws and failings of those we love, respect, or owe our allegiance to; myopia stemming from addiction to dangerous ideas and ideals; factors related to the exhaustion and the limits of your mind; the ostrich (stick-your-head-in-the-ground) approach; the just following orders excuse; conforming to the cultural standard of getting ahead no matter what it takes; the noninvolvement of bystanders, and the old out-of-sight, out-of-mind trick. Heffernan is right on target with this insight:

"We may think that being blind makes us safer, when in fact it leaves us crippled, vulnerable, and powerless. But when we confront facts and fears, we achieve real power and unleash our capacity for change."

Heffernan does not believe that everyone is afflicted with willful blindness. Some brave souls possess a fierce determination to see. Many of these men and woman are whistleblowers who are willing to stick their necks out and risk all in pursuit of truth, justice, or the right thing to do. Heffernan concludes that "while willful blindness may be a part of the human condition, it need not define who we are."