Could you imagine saying this in first century Jerusalem, where the average Joe couldn't help but notice a new religious movement? The same can be said for many other places today in our modern world.
Absolutely, I can imagine average Joe noticing the new religious movements. There is the story of Hanukkah, a couple of centuries earlier, about one particularly ill-fated attempt at establishing such a new religion in Jerusalem. There were still plenty of hellenizing Jews in Jerusalem in the first century. There were Roman troops, bringing all kinds of new religions from all over the empire to Jerusalem. Average Joe probably noticed them, but did he have time and inclination to learn about them all, test them, ...? Probably not. He had a living to earn, social obligations to fulfill, a family to care for. He probably found all these things more important than finding out whether Mithras had a new message from God for him, or Isis, or Hercules, or Simon the magician, or the Cynic itinerant preachers, or the teachings of the Stoa, or the Pythagoreans, or the Mazdakites. He probably wanted to stay out of trouble, and was wary of all these potentially disruptive ideas, and if at all, most likely torn between loyalty to the temple priest-kings who were however collaborating with the Roman occupiers, and the do-it-yourself movement of the sages...
And today, it is just the same. Average Joe just wants to do right by his neighbors and his god(s), participate in some broadly accepted religion, and get on with life. He doesn't want to alienate friends, family, employers, and customers by joining what might be perceived as a foreign cult.
Seekers are few in any age, is what I'm saying.
