The philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer observed that every new idea passes through three stages. "First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."
Take another example: women's right to vote. In the United States, it has taken less than 100 years to cycle through the three stages. The suffragists of the early 20th century were accused of mental imbalance, even insanity. Today, it seems absurd that women were ever barred from the ballot box, and the weight of public opinion worldwide favors universal suffrage.
New possibilities have developed from this shift in thinking. Women are increasingly represented among the ranks of elected leaders. And at this writing, women leaders and grassroots women's groups stand poised to shift Africa's fate from victim to victor.
It's ideas such as universal voting rights--and intentional acts to bring them to fruition--that have led the way in our civilization.
It may seem that the march of history has been a succession of solving problems and overcoming obstacles. It's easy to subscribe to the notion that impersonal forces and trends govern the course of human events, and we are helplessly propelled into a future not of our making.