"We run carelessly to the precipice, after we have put something before us to prevent us seeing it"

Blaise Pascal captures a fundamental tendency of human nature: our capacity for self-deception and willful blindness when confronting uncomfortable truths about ourselves or our circumstances. The imagery of running carelessly to a precipice suggests an urgent, almost reckless dash toward danger or destruction, a peril that should be plainly visible and elicit concern. Yet, rather than acknowledging this risk, people place something, be it distractions, rationalizations, or illusions, between themselves and the looming edge. The barrier is not physical but psychological or emotional, constructed deliberately to avert our gaze from the very consequences we are racing toward.

This behavior reflects the paradoxical ways individuals and societies often relate to existential threats or personal failings. Aware at some level of the risks inherent in their path, people create diversions, work, entertainment, ideological certainties, even day-to-day trivialities, that obscure their view of the precipice. They find comfort in the act of looking away, even as it hastens their approach to the edge. There is an implicit acknowledgment in Pascal’s observation: somewhere within, we know the cliff is there, we sense the fall that awaits, yet we prefer denial or distraction over confrontation.

The passage also hints at a more general commentary on how avoidance underpins much of human folly. By refusing to face unwelcome truths, people allow threats to grow unchecked and consequences to become inevitable. The metaphor covers a wide array of contexts: from personal habit and addiction to political or environmental crises. Instead of pausing to reflect and change course, the collective momentum builds until a point of no return is crossed.

Ultimately, Pascal’s insight serves as both diagnosis and warning. Without the courage to remove our self-imposed blindfolds and see the reality ahead, we are doomed to discover too late the depth of the abyss, victims of our own refusal to look.