We remain governed by taboo to an astounding extent. But the Establishment prefers to bury its collective head in the sand, denying it all the way to China. The establishment always rejects the first dawning of the new paradigm. That is the function of the establishment. The function of the heretic is to create new paradigms, some of which will surive if the heretic is lucky.
All establishments grow rigid and ossified and die off.
The individual heretic may play a role in the new paradigm or may just serve as comedy relief, i.e. appear as nutty to the future as to the current establishment. Heresy is no game for securityseekers. Even more so these days it seems. Joyce shows it that way in Finnegans Wake, and he's my major historical theorist. Shem and Shaun never stop their war, their comedy act, their dance - whatever you call this dialectic.