I was recently reminded of an interesting thought experiment carried out by the philosopher Plato. I’d like to share it here because it means a lot for those of us who push boundaries.
There are prisoners chained in position inside a cave having never seen sunlight. There is a fire behind them. The fire allows the prisoners to see the shadows of their captors and the things they do. As time goes on, the prisoners begin to associate the shadows with words. They believe the shadows to the be real object because they have never actually seen the objects.
One of the prisoners is removed from the cave and shown the world. His eyes must adjust to the light and he cannot see for long time. Once he begins to see he understands the error in associating the words to the shadows.
The prisoner then returns to the cave to free the other prisoners. Having been in sunlight, he cannot see in the cave anymore. The other prisoners now believe that going out of the cave will cause blindness. When the released prisoner tries to bring the other prisoners outside, they kill him for fear of what will happen to them.
That is the difficulty with being a trailblazer. Once you see, you cannot unsee. Those who have not seen, deny what you have seen.