FAILURE TO ACCEPT AN OUTSIDER DEPRIVES SOCIETY OF POSSIBLE BENEFITS

The Country of the Blind

By H.G. Wells (1904, full text available online)

Introduction

One benefit an outsider or Other, can bring to a society is the ability and skill to look at the same situations in a different manner. We can learn from the Other a new, better way of doing something. Too often, instead of embracing outsiders, we mistrust them, and to gain their trust, we insist they leave behind what makes them unique. We insist they become like us.

Summary

In a mountain community, completely cut off from the world, everyone is blind and has been for generations. Nunez, a man from the outside world falls into their existence—literally he is mountain climbing and falls. Members of the community do not accept him because he says he can see and they do not understand the concept of sight because all have been blind for generations. In order to be accepted by the community, he must undergo surgery to have his eyeballs removed, thus becoming blind. His difference—sight—could have been of great benefit and value for the community, but the blind saw any difference as negative and dangerous. Because of this intolerance, the community was deprived of sight, not only for the life of the Other, but likely for generations to come through the Other’s progeny.

Excerpt

A strange disease came upon them and had made all the children born to them there—and, indeed, several older children also—blind. . . . And amidst the little population of that now isolated and forgotten valley the disease ran its course. The old became groping, the young saw but dimly, and the children that were born to them never saw at all. But life was very easy in that snow-rimmed basin, lost to all the world, with neither thorns nor briers, with no evil insects nor any beasts save the gentle breed of llamas they had lugged and thrust and followed up the beds of the shrunken rivers in the gorges up which they had come. The seeing had become purblind so gradually that they scarcely noticed their loss. They guided the sightless youngsters hither and thither until they knew the whole valley marvelously, and when at last sight died out among them the race lived on.

[Nunez falls into a valley and discovers the community of the blind. He is excited and tells himself, “In the Country of the Blind the One-Eyed Man is King.” But the blind scorn what they cannot understand—his explanations of sight.]

“Where does he come from, brother Pedro?” asked one.
“Down out of the rocks.”
“Over the mountains I come,” said Nunez, “out of the country beyond there—where men an see. From near Bogota—where there are a hundred thousands of people, and where the city passes out of sight.”
“Sight?” asks Pedro. “Sight?” . . .
“Lead him to the elders,” said Pedro.
. . . Pedro went first and took Nunez by the hand to lead him to the houses.
He drew his hand away. “I can see,” he said.
“See?” said Correa.
“Yes; see,” said Nunez, turning towards him, and stumbled against Pedro’s pail.
“His senses are still imperfect,” said the third blind man. “He stumbles, and talks unmeaning words. Lead him by the hand.”

[Unable to see in the blackness of the council room, Nunez falls on top of some of the elders. The elders conclude Nunez is a newly formed man, formed out of the rocks, and that he needs to be taught the wisdom of the blind. They conclude his description of sight is without reason and due to his newness, much like a young child’s rich imagination.]

[Nunez attempts to persuade the blind of the reality of sight and a world they do not understand.]

“Look you here, you people,” he said. “There are things you do not understand in me.” . . . “He spoke of the beauties of sight, of watching the mountains, of the sky and the sunrise, and they heard him with amused incredulity tha tpresently became condemnatory. They told him there were indeed no mountains at all, but that the end of th erocks where the llamas grazed was indeed the end of the world; thence sprang a cavernous roof of the universe, from which the dew and the avalances fell; and when he maintained stoutly the world had neither end nor roof such as they supposed, they said his thoughts were wicked.”

[Nunez eventually conforms to the life of the blind because there is no way to leave the valley and no way to persuade its inhabitants of the concept of sight. He gains some acceptance in the community after admitting to being mad and newly formed from the rocks. But when he asked to marry the daughter of Yacob, his apprentice master, the elders refuse to grant consent because Nunez still talks of sight and is still an outsider. The elders want to help Nunez conform and become a good member of the community.]

“… Then afterwards one of the elders, who thought deeply, had an idea. He was a great doctor among these people, their medicine-man, and he had a very philosophical and inventive mind, and the idea of curing Nunez of his peculiarities appealed to him. One day when Yacob was present he returned to the topic of Nunez.

“I have examined Nunez,” he said, “and the case is clearer to me. I think very probably he might be cured.”“This is what I have always hoped,” said old Yacob.“His brain is affected,” said the blind doctor. The elders murmured assent.“Now, WHAT affects it? THIS,” said the doctor, answering his own question. “Those queer things that are called the eyes, and which exist to make an agreeable depression in the face, are diseased, in the case of Nunez, in such a way as to affect his brain. They are greatly distended, he has eyelashes, and his eyelids move, and consequently his brain is in a state of constant irritation and distraction.”“Yes?” said old Yacob. “Yes?”“And I think I may say with reasonable certainty that, in order to cure him complete, all that we need to do is a simple and easy surgical operation--namely, to remove these irritant bodies. . . . Then he will be perfectly sane, and a quite admirable citizen.”“Thank Heaven for science!” said old Yacob, and went forth at once to tell Nunez of his happy hopes.

Questions and Discussion

In the first quoted paragraph of the text, it describes how the inhabitants of the Country of the Blind slowly lost their sight in such a manner that the malady was almost seen as normal. Indeed, as generations passed, the limitations caused by blindness were seen as normal, acceptable, the only logical way to live, even superior to other ideas of life. Intolerance can be like blindness. Often, children are exposed to opinions, epithets, and degrading stories. As they grow with these constant steps toward intolerance (blindness), they believe the intolerant speech, actions, and thought as normal, even beneficial. What could have been done to avoid the complete lack of understanding of the concept of sight? Or was it inevitable living in an isolated community to understand anything that came from the outside world?

What faulty assumptions did Nunez make about blind people and about an entire community of blind? How did that assumption inhibit his chances of gaining acceptance in the community?

What benefits did this Country of the Blind deprive itself of by requiring the Outsider to assimilate by relinquishing his eyes and sight?

How receptive are we as individuals to experiences (the “sight”) of the Outsiders in our own societies? (Our society could be the school environment, our cities, or our countries.)

How does the majority in our society pressure minority groups to assimilate, become like the majority? What do minority groups sacrifice to be accepted by the majority?

How is our own Country (i.e., school, city, country) blind? Consider the treatment of minority groups, religious organizations, treatment of females compared to males.

What is one area in which we individually are blind, and how can we change that blindness?