In The Allegory of the Cave by Plato he describes a group of individuals that have only lived in a cave and have been brain washed about what reality truly is. In the cave, they sit tied up, staring at silhouettes of images portrayed on the wall. Much like viewers at a cinema, they sit and are consumed about what is being put in front of them. The people tied up are not in touch with what is actually reality, but is anybody?
While reading this writing by Plato, I tried to think of how I relate to the people in the cave. Am I too being brain washed about everything around me? Is there a light of knowledge that is right at my fingertips and only a stones throw away that I choose to ignore? Do I let the manifestations that we glorify in our culture let me think that that is the only true meaning for living? Like most people in our society today, I am subject to a lot of different media. It is hard to go through life and not be influenced by advertisements, shows, movies and the news. The hard part is being able to take a step away from all of those things and think critically about situations without having all of those distractions in your head. A job can be miserable but the fact that it pays you a decent wage can keep you coming back. Money is constantly distilled in our heads as the most important thing to us and we often overlook what is best for us in the pursuit of money.
The question that was posed was Is there a parallel between the status of the prisoners in Plato’s cave and the spectators in a cinema? To me, the prisoners are just as brain washed as the people keeping them there. “There is a perfection which all knowledge ought to reach, and which our pupils ought also to attain, and not to fall short of” (Plato The Allegory of the Cave) The amount of knowledge that is out there is unfathomable so knowing that we know nothing and that we will never have all of the answers is the only true knowledge. Our bodies and minds will only show and tell us a fraction of the universe around us, so how much more enlightened are we then the prisoners in the cave?
contobe 