During these times, I think all of us has taken some time to think about our lives a little more. To discover more about who we are and the type of world we’re living in.
It does not necessarily mean that this is good for some people. If people are negative, they will just be thinking more about negative things.
It is all about how we use our minds. It is a very powerful tool. We could pretty much convince ourselves of anything if we truly believe it. Just look at the studies they do with placebo effects.
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave comes from Book VII of the Republic. It is a powerful example of illusions and the tricks our minds play. Even this, from 400 B.C., is still relevant today.
Technology and what’s around us has improved so drastically that we somehow think people were different back then and we can’t learn anything from them. In essence, we have had the same human emotions for thousands of years.
The beginning of the Allegory sets the stage for you to imagine mankind as living in an underground cave with an entrance open to light. Deep inside are people chained up facing a wall unable to move. They have never seen the light of day.
A fire burns inside the cave and as people walk behind the chained prisoners shadows are casted on the wall. The prisoners live all their lives seeing only shadows of reality. Clinging to their passions and prejudices.
The Allegory of the Cave goes on for a while longer getting into what it would be like to break free and see reality. How would we handle it? Would we want to go back? Blue pill, red pill stuff.
An allegory is just an incomplete simile. We take it as a spark to get our minds thinking in the right direction.
If all we know is that cheeseburgers exist, I think we would be impartial to cheeseburgers.
Now just keep going with that. Enjoy
