Allegory of a Modern Day Cave
Allegory of the Modern Day Cave
“Plato’s Allegory of the Cave” was the philosophical story of people who lived in this cave, and never left. They were bound to one spot, and could never move. The only light was this fire in the middle of the cave, that was on the other side of a wall that separated the fire from the cave dwellers. There were also other people who carried objects above their heads on the fire side of the wall. This made shadows on the actual cave walls, which were the only things that the bound people knew to be true. One day one of the dwellers got to be freed from his position and was about to make discoveries of a new world.
When people have no clue what is going on in the world around them, this is exactly what I got out of “Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.” The people in the cave only knew what was in front of them. I related to this almost instantly, it got me thinking on how people these days are so blind to what is going on in the world around them. People are becoming “sheepeople,” and it almost angers me to think about. When there are some people are so focused on “the shadows of [the] artifacts”1 that they can’t even open their eyes and notice what’s going on around them every day. People get so caught up in one thing that it blinds them from a more complete world view.
My example is the random “political” things that people decide to have an opinion on. I think that most people anymore just want to start an argument over the most random things. Instead of actually coming up with a clear and concise argument to how things are and how to fix it, most people get mad and just start pointing out what is wrong and ask how we put up with such things. For instance, many people get very disgruntled over the issue of gay rights. They get so overwhelmed with themselves and how it is unfair to the gay community. This is their shadow on the wall. They just focus on this, but most people don’t come up with solutions on how to change it. The
“Plato’s Allegory of the Cave” was the philosophical story of people who lived in this cave, and never left. They were bound to one spot, and could never move. The only light was this fire in the middle of the cave, that was on the other side of a wall that separated the fire from the cave dwellers. There were also other people who carried objects above their heads on the fire side of the wall. This made shadows on the actual cave walls, which were the only things that the bound people knew to be true. One day one of the dwellers got to be freed from his position and was about to make discoveries of a new world.
When people have no clue what is going on in the world around them, this is exactly what I got out of “Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.” The people in the cave only knew what was in front of them. I related to this almost instantly, it got me thinking on how people these days are so blind to what is going on in the world around them. People are becoming “sheepeople,” and it almost angers me to think about. When there are some people are so focused on “the shadows of [the] artifacts”1 that they can’t even open their eyes and notice what’s going on around them every day. People get so caught up in one thing that it blinds them from a more complete world view.
My example is the random “political” things that people decide to have an opinion on. I think that most people anymore just want to start an argument over the most random things. Instead of actually coming up with a clear and concise argument to how things are and how to fix it, most people get mad and just start pointing out what is wrong and ask how we put up with such things. For instance, many people get very disgruntled over the issue of gay rights. They get so overwhelmed with themselves and how it is unfair to the gay community. This is their shadow on the wall. They just focus on this, but most people don’t come up with solutions on how to change it. The