usually slaughtered and brushed aside. What they were able to achieve was in no small measure due to the system they were up against being ready and willing to change and just needing some focus to show it to be true.
I think there's a fair amount of truth in that. People can be a catalyst for change, but that change has to be viable and ready to happen
Someone more famous than me said revolutions are the locomotives of history and although one man can spark a revolution he can't drive it through.