The allegory of the cave free#

All of us must work to nurture and sustain itвЂ¦ and to treat anyone as outside this body of humanity, or beneath it, is madness.

It is a living, breathing body, the internet is the nervous system, and it has brought this body to a new level of self-awareness like at no other time in history. Most of us can see this as a good thing, that all of us are cells in the larger body of humanity. This is an age wherein the masses can ascend and leave the cave in numbers unheard of, in real time. These shadows are everything from false or hateful political/religious ideologies to scientific racism just about anything that is bartered as truth and fact. PlatoвЂ™s classic Allegory of the Cave may best explain the true challenge of disabusing the masses from the вЂњshadowsвЂќ on the cave wall which we are taught from birth to perceive as real forms. It cannot be impressed deeply enough that those who seek to keep you in the dark to вЂњprotect youвЂќ or вЂњnational securityвЂќ, those who enforce and defend undue secrecy in matters affecting the rights of all Americans, are themselves in the darkness of the cave and will not suffer you to leave, because only within it can they control you with deception only within it can they induce the fear, suspicion and hatred necessary for you to act against your interest, and remain inside. to the Kennedys anyone who dared venture back into the cave of shadows in hopes of freeing the shackled prisoners.

These were men ranging from Martin Luther King Jr. The shackled prisoners, unable to verify the rescuerвЂ™s claim, will believe the very men oppressing them, and they will attack the man who tries to save them. And those who find the truth, those outside the cave, know that they will be labeled fools, liars and agitators by those still casting the shadows within the darkness of the cave. In the light the freed man realizes that the broadcast media does not report the news but merely cast shadows to entertain, deceive, or manipulate the shackled prisoners still in the caveвЂ¦.ДЇor purposes of illustration, the cave described herein is the world, the prisoners are those who erroneously perceive reality as being truthfully reflected on television. Instead of a wall with shadows we have television, instead of echoes we have radio. Let us apply this allegory to modern life, for the sake of argument, and say that the freed prisoner leaves the cave.

The allegory of the cave free#

This would make his fellow prisoners murderous toward anyone who attempted to free them.вЂќ вЂњOnce thus enlightened, so to speak, the freed prisoner would no doubt want to return to the cave to free вЂњhis fellow bondsmen.вЂќ The problem however is that they would not want to be freed: descending back into the cave would require that the freed prisonerвЂ™s eyes adjust again, and for a time, he would be inferior at the ludicrous process of identifying shapes on the wall. The last object he would be able to see is the sun, which, in time, he would learn to see as that object which provides the seasons and the courses of the year, presides over all things in the visible region, and is in some way the cause of all these things that he has seenвЂ¦. At first, he will be able to see darker shapes such as shadows, and only later brighter and brighter objects. Similarly, if he is dragged up out of the cave into the sunlight, his eyes will be so blinded that he will not be able to see anything. His eyes will be blinded by the firelight, and the shapes passing will appear less real than their shadows. вЂњSuppose a prisoner is released and compelled to stand up and turn around. This, however, is the only reality that they know, even though they are seeing merely shadows of images.

The prisoners engage in what appears to us to be a game вЂ“ naming the shapes as they come by. Also, when one of the shape-carriers speaks, an echo against the wall causes the prisoners to believe that the words come from the shadows. The shapes cast shadows on the wall, which occupy the prisonersвЂ™ attention. Behind the prisoners is an enormous fire, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised walkway, along which shapes of various animals, plants, and other things are carried. Not only are their limbs immobilized by the chains, their heads are chained as well so that their eyes are fixed on a wall. вЂњImagine prisoners who have been chained since childhood deep inside a cave. PlatoвЂ™s Shadows Work LikeВ Film Projector, Film We See as Reality Are you a slave or enlightened? See for yourself. Here are the parallels between his cave and the broadcast media. PlatoвЂ™s Allegory of the Cave describes вЂњshadowsвЂќ on the cave wall which we are taught from birth to perceive as real forms.