# Societies Can Define Wisdom as Madness by Bryant McGill > “The Sufi tale of the changing waters, told in Idries Shah's collections, explores conformity. A man who preserves old wisdom is called mad until he drinks the new water and is welcomed back. The story invites reflection on how societies define sanity.” > **— Bryant McGill**, *Opening Your Genius Through Language, Abstraction, and Manifesting - Livestream (Jan 2016)* ## Sources and Context - **Authoritative developed source:** [[livestreams/Opening Your Genius Through Language, Abstraction, and Manifesting - Livestream|Opening Your Genius Through Language, Abstraction, and Manifesting - Livestream]] — the Reminder reproduces the complete marked quotation object without alteration. For this workflow, the developed livestream document is the source authority. - **Interpretive context:** The Reminder preserves the developed workbook's identification of the tale and its social question. The story is used as a reflection on conformity, social recognition, and the collective construction of normality. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Simple Reminders|Simple Reminders]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Ramanujan Mathematical Universe|The Ramanujan Mathematical Universe]] - **Article:** [[articles/Thinking a Little Weird Without Murdering Its Strangeness|Thinking a Little Weird Without Murdering Its Strangeness]] - **Article:** [[articles/simple reminders/Your Future Begins with Your Next Thought|Your Future Begins with Your Next Thought]] - **Livestream:** [[livestreams/Opening Your Genius Through Language, Abstraction, and Manifesting - Livestream|Opening Your Genius Through Language, Abstraction, and Manifesting - Livestream]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Conformity|Conformity]] - [[wiki/Social Control|Social Control]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “The Sufi tale of the changing waters, told in Idries Shah's collections, explores conformity. A man who preserves old wisdom is called mad until he drinks the new water and is welcomed back. The story invites reflection on how societies define sanity.” — Bryant McGill, Opening Your Genius Through Language, Abstraction, and Manifesting - Livestream (Jan 2016) https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-bryant-mcgill-societies-define-wisdom-madness ```