How Is Plato's Cave Relevant Today
Plato’s Cave: Still Current in Mass Media
In the “Allegory of the Cave,” Plato describes a group of stupefied people who have been trapped in a cave their entire lives. These prisoners are chained facing a wall; they cannot see anything except the shadows on that wall, which are being cast by men carrying unknown objects in front of a glowing fire. They never see the actual carriers or items, and they hear nothing but the echoes of these obscure men, yet are still entranced by these illogical sounds and images. Plato’s Cave illustrates how people solely base their perception of the world on their experiences of physical objects, and by doing so, they limit themselves to the confined notions prescribed by their fear of change. The purpose of this essay is to prove how and why the stubborn ignorance present in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave can still be found in many aspects of today’s mass media, including television, news broadcasting channels, and advertising.
Today, most people have been chained to their television since …show more content…
They consider their beliefs and “realities” to be true, and will distrust others that do not share such principles. Even though no one is completely free from the endless number of caves and walls being lived in/gazed at, the first step to being set free, or freeing others, is to accept the fact that everyone is being held captive. Not everyone is raised to have the same puppet-masters or images, therefore, not everyone shares the same “false beliefs”. However, by allowing themselves to consider others’ “realities” and recognizing why “personal realities” differ so greatly from one person to another, a common ground will be established. It is this mutual understanding that may spark the enlightenment of the outside, where true reality forms beliefs, unlike the cave, where it is the beliefs that form
In the “Allegory of the Cave,” Plato describes a group of stupefied people who have been trapped in a cave their entire lives. These prisoners are chained facing a wall; they cannot see anything except the shadows on that wall, which are being cast by men carrying unknown objects in front of a glowing fire. They never see the actual carriers or items, and they hear nothing but the echoes of these obscure men, yet are still entranced by these illogical sounds and images. Plato’s Cave illustrates how people solely base their perception of the world on their experiences of physical objects, and by doing so, they limit themselves to the confined notions prescribed by their fear of change. The purpose of this essay is to prove how and why the stubborn ignorance present in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave can still be found in many aspects of today’s mass media, including television, news broadcasting channels, and advertising.
Today, most people have been chained to their television since …show more content…
They consider their beliefs and “realities” to be true, and will distrust others that do not share such principles. Even though no one is completely free from the endless number of caves and walls being lived in/gazed at, the first step to being set free, or freeing others, is to accept the fact that everyone is being held captive. Not everyone is raised to have the same puppet-masters or images, therefore, not everyone shares the same “false beliefs”. However, by allowing themselves to consider others’ “realities” and recognizing why “personal realities” differ so greatly from one person to another, a common ground will be established. It is this mutual understanding that may spark the enlightenment of the outside, where true reality forms beliefs, unlike the cave, where it is the beliefs that form