Turning a blind eye to ↩️👁️
Meaning
To deliberately ignore something that you know is wrong or should not be happening.
Origin
Imagine a ship's captain on the bridge, spyglass in hand. A signal comes in from a lookout: an enemy vessel is approaching, perhaps a smuggler or a pirate. But the captain, let's say, has a deal with the smuggler. Instead of raising the alarm, he simply lifts the spyglass to his good eye and deliberately brings the blinder of the telescope up to his blind eye. He's seeing nothing, of course. He's making a conscious choice not to see what he knows is there. This vivid, almost theatrical gesture became a powerful metaphor for willful ignorance, for pretending not to notice wrongdoing for personal gain or to avoid trouble.
Turning a blind eye to represented with emoji↩️👁️
The work foregrounds not just the obvious, but the subtle. It functions as a playful wink, inviting us to see the unseen and consider the things we might deliberately overlook. This playful interpretation challenges the viewer to recognize how easy it is to turn a blind eye, echoing the way simple symbols can illuminate complex human behaviors. Observe how the curve of the arrow suggests a turning away, while the eye remains, a silent witness to what is being ignored.
Examples
- The manager was accused of turning a blind eye to the employee's constant lateness.
- Despite seeing the mess, he decided to turn a blind eye to it and went straight to bed.
- The king, fond of pastries, often turned a blind eye to the kitchen staff's excessive sugar consumption.
- The fairy godmother, busy with wand polishing, turned a blind eye to the pumpkin's slightly alarming wobble.
Frequently asked questions
Turning a blind eye to is an idiom. It's a figurative expression where the meaning isn't directly deducible from the literal words, unlike a proverb which often offers advice or a moral lesson.
The opposite of turning a blind eye to is to 'face the music' or 'take action'. These phrases imply confronting a situation directly rather than ignoring it.
Generally, no, turning a blind eye to is considered unethical because it involves willful ignorance of wrongdoing. However, in rare, complex situations involving prioritizing harm reduction, some might argue for a nuanced approach, though it remains controversial.