![]() ![]() ![]() They will not need to be confronted with facts and ideas that go against their beliefs - that is unless they want to crusade against misguided shadows. The Internet has given everyone the ability to chain themselves into the cave of their choosing. The only explanation is that we are living in these caves. We wonder why people disregard evidence that goes contrary to their belief, but Plato recognized this weird behavior over two thousand years ago. Will he not fancy that the shadows which he formerly saw are truer than the objects with are now shown to him?Īnd if he is compelled to look straight at the light, will he not have a pain in his eyes which will make him turn away to take refuge in the objects of vision which he can see, and which he will be conceive to be in reality clearer than the things which are now being shown to him? In the Republic, Socrates talks about what happens to these prisoners if they are brought out of the cave and into the light. I don’t mean this in the conspiracy theory sense, but more in the observation that we don’t really get to see the world as it is, because it is not perceived as the thing that sells. ![]() The current election cycle, with its madness, is dedicated to making us think that the shadows are the truth. We all move through these caves, and we pay admission to them. As we move through our days, markets, advertisers, politicians, and even the new media try to get us to sit in their version of the cave. ![]() It also occurred to me that these aren’t our only caves. But the reality is, they didn’t chain us here. And we know that they try to manipulate us to be happy or unhappy, maybe even the way we vote. They are the ones tending the fire that casts the shadows. We’ve been chained to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and so on by the owners and operators of these companies. My first thought was that it was Mark Zuckerberg and his ilk. This led me to the question: who chained us here? We all sit, looking in only one direction at the digital shadows that dance in front of us. To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing by the shadows of the images. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners, there is a raised way and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets….Īnd they only see their own shadows or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave…. Socrates: And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened: - Behold! human being living in an underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. You would think with all the knowledge at our fingertips, we would be more enlightened, but Plato/Socrates was right: Then it occurred to me, we are living in versions of Plato’s cave. I was thinking about Plato’s Republic - like you do - and wondering why the allegory of the cave is taught so often. ![]()
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