Your mind is probably going to any of a number of polarizing political topics right now as you prime yourself to read this post after seeing the title. There are certainly no shortages of dangerous ideas floating in the zeitgeist that continue to harm various groups of people physically, emotionally, and spiritually. However, those are not the dangerous ideas I want to talk about. I'm instead talking about those ideas that run so counter to the status quo or suggest a behavior or practice so far outside of our accepted norms that they might almost be laughable. What if they aren't laughable, though? What if they represent just the right amount of disruption to revolutionize an industry, a status quo practice, or even the lives of a few people?
History is riddled with great thinkers who shared dangerous ideas that were ahead of their time and later widely adopted. From Confucius to Aristotle to Tesla, the power of those dangerous ideas rested in what they meant for how things had always been done. Now, I'm not suggesting you send yourself into exile like Aristotle or spend your days walking backwards in a barrel and begging for money from statues like Diogenes, but I am suggesting you not wait to share your dangerous idea. Ideas will always live on after our passing, but you need not relegate yourself to a future death as the only path to acceptance.
What makes an idea dangerous in the first place? Simply put, it disrupts commonly understood beliefs or practices within a cultural space. That space may be an entire country or a small mid-Atlantic university. We are surrounded by norms and beliefs that help us function in everyday society. We often take them for granted as simply the way things are, and our own confirmation biases continually seek out examples that maintain that way of being, and discard evidence that is contradictory. As such, change can be really hard to come by, and even considering an alternative idea can be a challenge. When we do happen to stumble upon a dangerous idea, we are fighting the inclination to stifle it because it runs counter to everything we've learned. Those dangerous ideas can and do come and go regularly without us even realizing it. The trick is to grab hold of one of them and not let go.
Once we do grab hold and start to see some aspect of the world in a new way or fully consider a new solution to a problem, it's impossible not to think about it constantly. It's like asking us not to look at the white bear. Our own reluctance, coupled with the societal pressure to conform, often leaves us leery of expressing our ideas. This is the hurdle we need to get over. We recognize the penalties for speaking errantly from a very early age, and that fear often keeps us from sharing ideas some might consider to be dangerous. It's that much more important, then, that we overcome that fear and not wait to share that dangerous idea. You don't know who else it may resonate with until it's out in the ether, and once it connects with someone else, you not only have an ally, but you have momentum.
Momentum is easily lost if it is not cultivated, though. Thus, it's important that you continue speaking that idea into existence, sharing it with people repeatedly until someone listens and takes interest. Look for opportunities to work it into conversations. Float the idea to colleagues in different disciplines to get their hot takes on it. Write it down and share it widely with the rest of the world. Continue to look for new information that informs or alters your idea as you massage it further. Our own fear of judgment often holds us back from sharing these dangerous and powerful ideas, but in truth, I've found that people are often far to self-absorbed to care all that much with your idea if it doesn't immediately resonate with them. These aren't the folks you're speaking to anyway. Not at first, anyway.
Once you have that momentum and you've finessed your idea, filtering it through anyone that will listen, then you can begin to strategize how and when to implement it, and what you need to make it happen. Start with the problem as you see it, and discuss how your dangerous idea changes things for the better. There will always be a need for folks who focus on small adjustments that refine an existing system or technology, but the need for those adaptations should never negate the potential for evolution to present us with mutations that can move us forward in leaps and bounds. So, what's your dangerous idea and who are you sharing it with today?
