Allegory Of The Cave; Plato's Cave

"Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood. Let alone believed by the masses. - Plato (427 - 347 BC)

What is Plato's Cave?

Can Such Analogy Be Seen Today?

Yes, Plato’s Cave analogy such an important analogy in today's society. That the reality that is presented towards us, the narrative the media provides us, and most importantly our blind belief that what we are seeing are the 'truth' of every story. This analogy is so perfect towards the present society, the media representing the shadows that we see on the cave, the slaves tied up to the wall representing us and our blind belief in what we can barely see, and the person who sees everything who's trying to break us free yet everyone considerers them as a 'crazy psychopath' and gets locked up for it. Plato's Cave helps us understand the situation many find themselves in today's world, that we are 'tunneling' our vision towards a certain narrative, the narrative that the media wants to present itself. We are placed inside our very own small world, believing that no one can control us while in reality those behind us, lurking in the shadows are the ones shaking our shackles. Like puppets on a marioneted string.

Knowledge and Understanding Come In At Price.

Knowledge and Understanding always come at a price; that price is always solitude. This is all due humanity's fear of the unknown. By having both knowledge and understanding especially on topics unknown to many, everyone reaction will be fear you. They will treat you as a crazy person, never believing nor trying to hear what you have to say only because they cannot and choose not to comprehend what you are saying. The 50/50 chance of either being good or just mostly being really, really, bad is a very huge risk. Thus, many hate the unknown as they dislike things like probability, especially if you died because you were just unlucky compared to most people. That is why knowledge and understanding always comes with the price of solitude. It is very rarely you see anyone braving themselves into comprehending the unknown and if you do, the only perfect term for them is a hero.

How Do We Combat Our Ignorance?

Ignorance is something everyone suffers from. You cannot be Human without being ignorant about a certain aspects about your life. Thus, does that mean we should leave our ignorance be. No, you should never stop combatting against ignorance or else you'll be the naïve worker never truly understanding how the world actually works. So, what are the best ways to combatting ignorance. Well, my belief to combat ignorance is always try your absolute hardest to obtain knowledge. Having knowledge will allow you to no longer feel clueless. By having knowledge you will gain understanding, understanding that will help you become a greater person. An great example of ignorance is ones helpless feeling with the current political situation about Canada. By at least taking some time out of your life in order to search up and find knowledge about politics and what will either benefit or be detrimental to you either way you’ll at least gain a greater understanding than before when you didn’t have any of that knowledge and were just ignorant about it. The chance for knowledge and understanding shall never stop, knowledge is power.