Read Plato’s account of the Allegory of the Cave and say whether and why you think it is valid today.
There are various ways you can answer this question. In what sense might we be ‘in the dark’ about the world we live in? Are we in some sense collectively manipulated or do we just think we are? Does Plate’s image of shadows on a cave wall bear comparison with the technicological screen? Try to provide sufficient evidence in your answer and take relevant quote from the text.
In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato explains that there is a group of people who live deep in a dark cave, where they are chained and forced to face the back cave wall. Images are then projected upon the cave wall of animals and people. The cave dwellers have never seen the outside of the cave, nor do they know if it’s existence. Therefore, they take it that the shadows on the wall are reality, rather than just shadows of puppets, based on animals in the “real” world. The story relates that one man is freed from the cave and travels to the outside world. The shock of this change causes him to be confused, in pain and delerious; thinking that what exists outside the cave is an imitation and what is inside the cave is reality. After some time, his eyes adjust and he begins to believe that the outside world is real, and to pity those left within the cave. However, if he was to go back to the cave to explain, he would be treated as the villian, as he would not be able to adjust back to the darkness in order to explain the “truth” from outside.
Is this story relevant today? In short, yes it is, although not entirely.
In today’s world, “the dark” or “the cave” could refer to many different things. The first thing that comes to mind is to starved of information. We live in an “information age”, after all, however not everyone has equal access to this information or to education which would allow them to understand it. The “coming into the light” could be the process of education, which is denied to millions of people around the world, particularly women and girls. In fact, ” 67 million primary-school-age children are still denied the right to education” (ACEI-Global, 2014). Of those people who are denied their education, they may be aware of this denial – in which case they are aware that there is a world outside their cave, but they are unable to access it – or they are unaware that this education exists – in which case “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 thechains from turning round their heads”.
The danger in either situation, is that the reality that they experience is being controlled by another force, and therefore ” they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave”. I think it is safe to say that this can lead to a fear of the unknown, a fear of other peoples and other cultures, and fear often leads to aggression, as one author put it ” Fear and loathing of the unknown “other” fuels hatred—the underlying emotional driver of radical ideologies such as jihadism, white supremacy, and fascism.” (Goni, 2017). Our world today seems to be dominated by Terrorism – in which one culture of people attacks another because of differing beliefs or unequal resources, radical thinking. I think that the Allegory of the Cave addresses this, in its description of men returning from the outside world to discuss the “truth” with those who know nothing of this world: “Men would say of him that up he went and down he came without his eyes; andthat it was better not even to think of ascending; and if anyone tried to looseanother and lead him up to the light, let them only catch the offender, and theywould put him to death”.
Another way that I believe we are being ‘kept in the dark’ – collectively – is through politics. Each society has their own leaders. It is those leaders who determine what access we have to what information. In that way, they are like the marionettes who project images onto our cave wall. Our Government is the body whom we have assigned to inform us of what is true and what is not and in some ways, we have no power to be informed otherwise; for example, in Dictatorships like North Korea. “All media outlets are owned and controlled by the North Korean government. As such, all media in North Korea get their news from the Korean Central News Agency. The media dedicate a large portion of their resources toward political propaganda and promoting the personality cult of Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un. The government of Kim Jong-un still has absolute authority over and control of the press and information.” (En.wikipedia.org, 2019) . This reminds me of the line in the Allegory “How could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads?”. When the Government of a country becomes involved or responsible for the information that we have access to, it would be reasonable to say that we are allbeing collectively manipulated.
The most obvious comparison to today’s world is the comparison of the cave wall with our Screens; “According to the market-research group Nielsen, adults spend over 11 hours per day interacting with media.” (Brooks, 2018). Screens offer us a whole new “reality” in which to exist; not only is there the opportunity to create avatars and live in artificial worlds and communities, but there are Social medias which allow us to share only what we want to share with others, to create new “selves” and to experience the world in different ways. We have access to seemingly unlimited information. However, what we seem to forget is that this is all virtual. What we see and experience and feel via our screens in in fact just projections of the “real” world outside of technology. Watching a video on animals in the Amazon, for example, is not the same as visiting the Amazon in person and experiencing this in real life.
What we experience through technology is simply “a mediated and low-resolution approximation of life” ( Taylor, 2011) which can become addictive the same way drugs or sex can become addictive, as discussed in this article. This reminds me of the people within the cave who congratulate themselves on their skill at identifying the shadows that they see, creating an exciting challenge for themselves in this very limited world; “conferring honors amongthemselves on those who were quickest to observe the passing shadows and toremark which of them went before, and which followed after, and which were together; and who were therefore best able to draw conclusions as to the future”.
It would be quite easy to imagine that the Allegory f the Cave was written during our modern times, rather than during 500a. It is very relevant to life today.
REFERENCES
ACEI-Global. (2014). 15 Facts on Education in Developing Countries. [online] Available at: https://acei-global.blog/2014/03/06/15-facts-on-education-in-developing-countries/ [Accessed 3 Aug. 2019].
Brooks, M. (2018). How Much Screen Time Is Too Much?. [online] Psychology Today. Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/tech-happy-life/201812/how-much-screen-time-is-too-much [Accessed 3 Aug. 2019].
En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Censorship in North Korea. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_North_Korea [Accessed 3 Aug. 2019].
Goni, C. (2017). The Way to Combat Online Radicalization Is Actually Offline. [online] Opensocietyfoundations.org. Available at: https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/truth-about-terror-and-youth-radicalization [Accessed 3 Aug. 2019].
Taylor, J. (2011). Technology: Virtual vs. Real Life: You Choose. [online] Psychology Today. Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-power-prime/201105/technology-virtual-vs-real-life-you-choose [Accessed 3 Aug. 2019].
UVC - Shóna 