The Unknowers

How Strategic Ignorance Rules the World

By: Linsey McGoey

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eBook | 15 September 2019 | Edition Number 1

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Deliberate ignorance has been known as the 'Ostrich Instruction' in law courts since the 1860s. It illustrates a recurring pattern in history in which figureheads for major companies, political leaders and industry bigwigs plead ignorance to avoid culpability. So why do so many figures at the top still get away with it when disasters on their watch damage so many people's lives?

When the phone hacking scandal rocked the United Kingdom in 2011, Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News International, knew nothing of the criminal goings-on. After a fire swept through the Grenfell Tower, it soon came to light that the tragedy was a result of the wilful ignorance of experts. Does the idea that knowledge is power still apply in today's post-truth world?

Encompassing the building of industrial empires in 19th century America to the legal defences of today, The Unknowers shows that ignorance has not only long been an inherent part big business, but also that true power lies in the ability to convince others of where the boundary between ignorance and knowledge lies.

Industry Reviews

'The definitive book for our times on what makes strategic ignorance so 'strategic' in the hands of the powerful. If the truth can set us free, then it is only once we have taken back ignorance.'
Steve Fuller, author of Post-Truth: Knowledge as a Power Game

'This is McGoey at her absolute best. And what a tour de force The Unknowers is. Each chapter weaves its way backward and forward between events and evidence, past and future making, to offer original insights into how strategic ignorance and deliberate uncertainty keep those at the top in power.'
Susan L. Robertson, University of Cambridge

'The Unknowers is a landmark study of the myriad ways in which ignorance infuses our social, political and economic lives. Linsey McGoey deftly weaves social thought and empirical analysis to rethink how the power to draw the boundaries between knowledge and ignorance can radically transform society and democracy.'
Claudia Aradau, King's College London

'In this timely book, McGoey tells us how deliberate and willful ignorance are used in politics, law, media, health and especially economics, to get and keep power. And she tells us what we might do about it.'
Lynne Pettinger, University of Warwick

'Ours is an era where truth-telling, leadership and authority have an increasingly feeble relationship. Linsey McGoey picks apart how strategic ignorance is a dastardly ploy that enables society's elites to avoid responsibility for their rampant pursuit of self-interest. Essential if we are to resist what is one of the most dangerous tendencies of the new normal in global politics.'
Carl Rhodes, co-author of CEO Society: The Corporate Takeover of Everyday Life