Our selective blindness is lethal to the living world is a powerful, awareness-raising, consciousness-expanding article by George Monbiot, about the impacts of this phenomenon on our environment. This selective blindness, however, is not unique to this part of life alone; it applies to everything, and is one of the biggest reasons why we can’t all get along on Earth or decide on the same priorities, values, etc.

Different people see different things, depending on what is important to them, what they are primed to see, what they want to see, what they allow themselves to see, or what they are ready to see. Unfortunately, denial, short-term memory, and ignorance are all too easy for the untrained human mind.

I hope you take a couple of minutes to read through this article and reflect on it.

Here are some of the key messages shared by George Monbiot in it:

“We inhabit parallel worlds of perception, bounded by our interests and experience. What is obvious to some is invisible to others.”


“The infrastructure of marketing and media helps us not to see, not to think, not to connect our spots of perception to create a moral world view upon which we can act.”


“Most people subconsciously collaborate in this evasion. It protects them from either grief or cognitive dissonance.”

Please don’t close your eyes to that which is most vital. There has never been a more important time to see with your heart and mind and take action in the right direction. What you eat, how much you eat, the products you use in your kitchen, laundry, garden and on your body, the amount of stuff you buy, the amount of stuff you throw away, all these and other parts of our lifestyles matter, and are either helping or hurting life on Earth.

The more we become less destructive to the natural world, the more we and all other humans and living beings benefit in the present, and future to come. Let’s be the change we wish to see and ones that future generations can be proud of and grateful for.