The Country of the Blind

In H. G. Wells' renowned 1904 short story, a mountaineer named Nunez discovers a secluded valley in Ecuador inhabited solely by people who have been rendered blind by a disease. Convinced that his sight gives him an advantage to rule over them, he is taken aback when he learns that the sighted world he knows is viewed by the valley's inhabitants not as a power, but as a distraction from their way of life.