Idiom and metaphor in the form of a parallel phrase
This article is about the metaphor. For the painting by Pieter Bruegel based on the metaphor, see The Blind Leading the Blind.
"The blind leading the blind" is an idiom[1] and a metaphor in the form of a parallel phrase; it is used to describe a situation where a person ignorant of a given subject is getting advice and help from another person who is just as ignorant of the subject.[2]
History
The idiom can be traced back to the Upanishads, which were written around 800 BCE[3]
Abiding in the midst of ignorance, thinking themselves wise and learned, fools go aimlessly hither and thither, like blind led by the blind.
Suppose there were a row of blind men, each holding on to the one in front of him: the first one doesn't see, the middle one doesn't see, the last one doesn't see. In the same way, the statement of the Brahmans turns out to be a row of blind men, as it were: the first one doesn't see, the middle one doesn't see, the last one doesn't see.
The similar expression appears in Horace (Epistles, book I, epistle XVII, line 4): caecus iter monstrare uelit ("the blind wishing to show the way"). Horace was the leading Romanlyric poet during the time of Augustus (27 BCE – 14 CE)[6]
The phrase also features in the New Testament. It is mentioned several times in the gospels, with similar stories appearing in Matthew, Luke and the non-canonical gospel of Thomas, possibly reaching the evangelists via the hypothesised Q source.
"Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them; they are blind guides [of the blind]. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit."
— Matthew 15:13-14
Sextus Empiricus (160 – 210 CE) compares ignorant teachers and blind guides in his Outlines of Scepticism:
"Nor does the non-expert teach the non-expert—any more than the blind can lead the blind."[7]
Augustine of Hippo, a Catholic theologian, writes ″Vae caecis ducentibus! Vae caecis sequentibus!″, Latin for "woe to the blind that lead, woe to the blind that follow".[9]
Artistic depictions
The Blind Leading the Blind by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1568
^Augustine of Hippo, Contra epistulam parmeniani Libri tres, Lib. III, 4:24, cited by Blaise Pascal in his Lettres provinciales, Onzième lettre "Aux pères jésuites".