Al’s View: Are we Cave Men or Free Men?
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26 June 2010 — Plato, one of the most prolific writers in history, realized that society largely lived insulated from a full realization of reality. He likened this to a group of men held in chains in a dark cave. They came to formulate what they believed reality to be based on shadows and noises made by others who were not tethered to the cave walls.
Well, one day one of these men got lose and he made a beeline to the outside. Once in daylight, he was able to get a good glimpse of what reality is all about and he quickly came to realize that it 
wasn’t anything like he and his comrades believed it to be. Naturally, wanting to help his still captive friends, he returned to the cave to tell them what he had seen.
The moral of Plato’s story is easy to discern once you see how badly the illuminated cave dweller was treated by the very people he sought to free.
My own analogy regarding the folly of human nature involves a giant room with very few windows. Most of us all our lives fail to peer out a window. Most of us do not really want to see the real world around us anyway.
There is a relatively small group of people who, for whatever reason, decide to spend considerable time peering out one or more of these windows in an attempt to come to some conclusion as to what is there. Many of these individuals become “illuminated.”
In due time, it becomes obvious to these select men and woman that what they see outside the room does not coincide with what they’ve been told for most or all of their lives. Being the good sort they are, they then try to warn others. But alas, no one cares to listen. In fact, these individuals are chastised by their peers, labeled as insane, odd, and simply mistaken. All the while, it’s the masses who do the labeling that are out of touch with reality–and most of them by choice.
Personally, I would rather live illuminated than walk daily in a darkened state.
Plato, the most creative and influential of Socrates’ disciples, wrote dialogues, in which he frequently used the figure of Socrates to espouse his own (Plato’s) full-fledged philosophy. In “The Republic,” Plato sums up his views in an image of ignorant humanity, trapped in the depths and not even aware of its own limited perspective. The rare individual escapes the limitations of that cave and, through a long, tortuous intellectual journey, discovers a higher realm, a true reality, with a final, almost mystical awareness of Goodness as the origin of everything that exists. Such a person is then the best equipped to govern in society, having a knowledge of what is ultimately most worthwhile in life and not just a knowledge of techniques; but that person will frequently be misunderstood by those ordinary folks back in the cave who haven’t shared in the intellectual insight.
Source: www.wsu.edu
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Tags: cave men, philos, philosophy, Plato, reality