In some worse cases，the greatest thinkers are even persecuted by their societies since the greatest thinkers always tend to have skeptical and critical thoughts，which the manipulators fear mostly and manipulated reluctant to accept. The reason is that once the advanced ideas，which are against the old ones，are accepted by mass，the domination or the present social system will in the danger of collapse. And at the same times，most people are reluctant to admit that what they believe in or cherish，however，always prejudice and rigid ideas set in people's minds beforehand，are not the truth but falsehood or illusions. A case in point is the great astronomer Copernicus，who developed the theory that the earth and other planets revolve around the sun. Although the theory was the most advanced astronomy theory in that time，it hadn't come out of press until the year before Copernicus' death because of mass being strongly against it especially the powerful churches，which were afraid that such a theory would shake authority of theology.
In some specific period，for political reasons，thinker and intellectuals as a whole undergo ruthless treatment，such as the Culture Revolution from 1966 to 1976 in China. During those ten years，many great thinkers and intellectuals are forbidden to think and express their thoughts freely. Some of them even encountered physical torture. A crueler example is Qin Dynasty in China 2000 years ago. Yingzheng，the first emperor of China，sentenced the thinkers who held different political or social ideas from him to death. Moreover，he buried their writings.
It is the greatest thinkers' tragedy not to be understood or even be persecuted. It is also the fact that human beings are always shortsighted， sometimes even foolish. Nevertheless，what is truth will never change itself or disappear along with the elapsing of time however strong the falsehood seems to be. Hence，though almost all the greatest thinkers are hermits，some of them may be even the prisoners in their societies; they would gain their perpetual lives through their glaring.
