The fine line between self awareness and self appointed philosophical superiority

In literature, in our world today and over the course of time individuals have sprung up and made their mark. They have been renowned as philosophers, advanced thinkers, geniuses and icons, individuals who promote ideas and beliefs that possess such a stark contrast from the world around them. Throughout history men such as Socrates and Plato and other famous philosophers have, through years of personal and worldly reflection, developed ideas and concepts that remain applicable to the human race as a whole despite the wear of time and changing societies. However, what separates genius, a person who seems to have the answers and has complete understanding of the world around them from those many who simply believe that they have self-appointed intellectual superiority over those around them, the "mindless rabble".

Generally this kind of superior thinking develops from those who are in nobility or positions of power but as we have discovered in literature their are also those who have self appointed themselves with philosophical superiority. In the novel "The Awakening" a strong emphasis is placed on "awakening" a development of inner mental awareness in the main character that lets her "see" the world for what it really is. Even in today's worldtheir are multitudes of people willing to show, explain, and even teach their own revelations and epiphanies to the world around them. Radical religions, extremists, and other "well-doers" all believe they have it all figured out while at the same time most of the world considers them mad. While in the same population are individuals whose ideas and beliefs are revered and treated as brilliance such as Oprah, Doctor Phil, and Ellen.
The line between them in reality is very small while from the outside these groups are on complete opposite sides of the spectrum in the eyes of the American public today.

What I am trying to get across is that in this world, in literature and in our day to day lives their are those who say they have it all figured out and we call them crazy while someone we respect may give us an idea or different reality that we embrace as absolute truth. We look at someone like Edna and some would view her as a woman escaping the confines of her society to be what she wants to be, the future of a woman's ideals for some. Personally, I think she is just a selfish nutcase. She is a woman who starts to develop her own ideals and finds it so liberating that she in the end puts herself above society, she is of the belief that she has discovered a truth that only she is capable of finding in her life and no one could understand her even if she explained her ideas, which she also never does. She commits suicide in the end because she thinks she can never find a place in her society, leaving a family with children, she dies for some a tragic hero, for me she died a fool.