Does blindness lead to understanding?

Question:Not in real life. In literature however, there is a definite correspondence between blindness and understanding. Many soothsayers from literature are blind. And countless stories have characters that gain understanding with blindness.
For example, in Oedipus Rex, Oedipus blinds himself when he realizes the truth about the prophecy.
In the new movie 10,000 BC (by the way, it's not that great), but there is a blind "seer".
In the movie "O Brother Where Art Thou?" (based on Homer's Odyssey) A blind seer tells them the truth about the treasure.
In real life, the only reason a blind person would gain understanding would be if their other senses somehow compensated for the lack of sight to enhance feelings.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Not in real life. In literature however, there is a definite correspondence between blindness and understanding. Many soothsayers from literature are blind. And countless stories have characters that gain understanding with blindness.
For example, in Oedipus Rex, Oedipus blinds himself when he realizes the truth about the prophecy.
In the new movie 10,000 BC (by the way, it's not that great), but there is a blind "seer".
In the movie "O Brother Where Art Thou?" (based on Homer's Odyssey) A blind seer tells them the truth about the treasure.
In real life, the only reason a blind person would gain understanding would be if their other senses somehow compensated for the lack of sight to enhance feelings.

I don't think it does because you must endure the troubles to understand them. If you were blind to the true facts in the first place, you won't know how to fully address the problem.

Haven't you heard of the "blind leading the blind" ? So blindness leads to Leadership, and also to our entire social setup, politics, religion, exploitation of the masses, etc. This is serious, btw, not tongue-in-cheek. So far, humanity's blindness hasn't led to any global understanding.

yeah, because if you weren't blind in the first place how can you reach an understanding of what you were blind of before?

like everything, they support each other.