The Light in Enlightenment

We believe the things that we have been shown. This statement defines the way people perceive life and ideas. In Plato’s allegory “The Cave”, there is a group of people placed in front of a wall and are shown shadows. These people are prisoners of selected perspective. They are shown specific parts of the picture and not all of it. Today the media does just this; people are subject to a conglomeration of different forms of media under one corporate roof. We are forcefully spoon-fed selected information. However, is the information that we are given the “right” information? The light described in Plato’s allegory is Truth. There is light outside of the cave and inside of the cave, but which one is the correct one? As humans, we are always looking for the truth. However, the truth is always different because we are exposed to different intensities of light that shine on the information given to us that allow us to formulate our own ideas.
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First of all what is the cave? Plato uses the cave as a metaphor that can be used to describe our culture. We are constantly surrounded by the building blocks of society, which in this metaphor is the dirt around these prisoners. The building blocks of society make us feel comfortable in and familiar with our environment. It also allows us to connect with the people we surround ourselves with. The people parading in front of the fire with different objects can be seen as the media, our peers or even the government; these parades produce ideas amongst the prisoners of their surroundings and their beliefs. When the man is unchained and dragged outside of the cave, this is what happens when someone who has already been enlightened figuratively drags someone else into his or her world.

The harsh light of the sun greets the man dragged into the outside world. Figuratively this light is knowledge. Plato claims that this new knowledge would “pain his eyes” and therefore it would man would be compelled to “turn away and flee to those things which he is able to discern and regard them as in very deed more clear and exact”, showing the effect of acquiring opposite ideas (Plato 666). This only happens when we are introduced to an idea that conflicts with our original ideas. However, over time, we accept the new idea. Like the new ideas, our original ideas are not accept it out of thoughtlessness, but we accept it only because there is no other possible way that there could be another idea. Plato represents this with the prisoners having to face the wall and being unable to turn around. These prisoners have no way of knowing that there are other ways of thinking or seeing things. They only know that there are shadows of objects that they cannot visually or tangibly identify. Because they have been exposed to the parade of “images” for so long, their idea of what those shadows are is correct. It is correct because they, as a collective group, believe it is that way. The prisoner’s ideas on what the shadows are also come from what is socially accepted. If all of the prisoners agreed that a shadow was one thing and not the other, then it was easy to follow; there was no real thinking involved. However, through an outsider’s perspective, the prisoners would be considered ignorant for not knowing what those objects really are.

            If we are exposed to new ideas we have a harder time coping with it. We are so committed to the ideas we attain as children and teenagers that when those ideas are challenged, we don’t want to feel the pain that maybe our idea was wrong. When the one man is unchained, he will “not be able to see even one of the things that we call real” because of the unfamiliarity and the harsh sunlight (Plato 667). After a good amount of time, he is able to slowly recognize the shadows that he had seen in the cave. Once he raises his head higher, he is able to piece everything together. Plato is showing that when someone is given the tools, he or she will succeed. These “tools” is the exposure to a whole different perspective. Different perspectives allow people to have a more intellectual reasoning to push them into creating their own ideas about life. Does that mean that children need teachers? Teachers are a certain kind of “light”. They highlight material children learn through curriculum and textbook. However, are the truths given to youth through school curriculums and textbooks the “right” truths? It seems that although we try to teach the youth to “see the light”; we are choosing their path in seeing the light. Adults decide what they want children to be exposed to and how they are exposed. This goes with the media. People of high authority, to suit their personal needs, can very easily skew the media to highlight certain truths.

            With all of this talk about “seeing the light”, what is “the light”? Plato explores the concept of “light”. There is no right way of seeing things. The man who went out to “see the light” is just as right as the men chained to face to wall. The light is what we perceive to be true. In the allegory, the light comes from the sun and the fire. The light that comes from these sources “shine” on what is important. Humans are always looking for truth; it can be the uppercase Truth or it can be the lowercase truth. The difference between these truths is one is the undeniable uppercase Truth; this Truth represents everything factual, usually associated with science. The lowercase truth represents what we believe to be factual, usually associated with religion. It is factual to a certain point; this point is when someone else questions another opinion of the truth. How are these two different truths relevant to discovering what is the “light”? The light is whatever we choose to be. The light may be factual or it may be opinionated. Either way we choose what we will follow to be the “light”.

            An example of “light” is the influence Hitler had on children. These children were called Hitler youth. They were told from a very young age of Hitler, not as a bad man, but as the man who was doing the right thing to remove Jews and Gypsies from the world. These children did not know the difference between what was “right” and what was “wrong”. They were told, through Hitler’s intensive use of propaganda that his ideas were right. Propaganda in Hitler’s case was very effective and well used. He was able to influence a generation of children that his way was the “light”. He also showed that propaganda, like any kind of media, could be used to change perspectives and to shine light on only the most important parts. Hitler and propaganda acted like the parade in front of the fire with the children as the chained prisoners of Plato’s allegory.

From the perspective of America and other countries, Hitler’s ideas were not well received and were not supported. This is because they had their own “light”, thus they were “outside the cave”, so to speak. Like Hitler youth, we all have the one thing that we look towards as our “light”. This light shines on our path to doing things that are socially accepted by our peers. Anything can be the “light”. Although the chained men in The Cave do not actually live in any real light, what they see from the fire is their “light”. When the unchained man goes to the surface, the light has changed for him. His newfound realization is he choosing that what he has seen on the surface as the actual truth. In his perspective this truth would be the uppercase Truth because it had become an undeniable fact. In the perspective of the prisoner, the unchained man’s uppercase Truth is actually a lowercase truth. It is his belief and his belief only when he is in the cave. Therefore, when he returns to his peers, they laugh at him.

In Plato’s allegory, seeing “the light” is a way to socialize and connect with peers. When the man comes back from the surface to his former peers “he would count himself happy in the change and pity them” explaining that he would think himself better than them for knowing the source of the shadows (Plato 667). This provoked laughter and anger from the prisoners. Because the unchained man’s ideas were socially unacceptable in the cave, they would, if possible, “to lay hands on and to hill the man who tried to release them and lead them up” since the cave and the ideas that came with being in the cave were very familiar to the prisoners (Plato 668). Plato in this part says these men, if given the opportunity, would kill the newly enlightened man. This killing of a man with distinctive ideas is not novel. We naturally want to fit in with our peers and our peers want to be surrounded by people who have similar ideas. Therefore, when someone changes the status quo, people become afraid of the novelty. This occurs especially with people of authority. When these people are faced with an idea threatening the status quo of the current society, they would discourage it immediately. Hitler did this by removing people who did not agree with the Nazi party.

Discouraging new ideas is a form of being ignorant. Plato explains with the unchained man that people need to be guided away from ignorance. They need to be persuaded to discover their own truth in life. Joshua Foer describes people’s need to “invest in the acquisition of memories” (Foer). Like Plato, Foer encourages people to “furnish their minds” (Foer). Whether it is information or memories, we need to be constantly searching for more knowledge to satisfy our minds. Laboring for memories and information is like the human need to look truth. These memories are lowercase truths while the information are uppercase Truths. By laboring for these truths we are able to satisfy ourselves and to reassure ourselves of our existence. As humans, we hold both of these truths true and hold them very close to our souls. When we look for truth, we look towards our peers and the media.

In the media today there are a few big corporate companies who, by conglomerating, own many major forms of media such as the news. Because of special interests and the idea of running a business, information is weeded through and only the selected ones are exposed to the masses. Although there is some truth in that, it is only a selected part of the big picture. It would seem what these companies are choosing to represent is their perspective or their truth on the subject. These companies are the people in Plato’s allegory parading in front of the fire, whilst the prisoners represent society who are prisoners to selected information.

Although “the light” is different for everyone, we are all looking for truth. When we find the truth that we have been looking for we want it to be accepted by our peers and society. Plato uses the cave and the prisoners as metaphors showing the human nature to try to make sense with what they are given and their goal of finding the truth or “the light” in the world. Hitler youth was shown a certain light as well as anyone else who have been exposed to propaganda. All of these ideas point towards people’s need to find some truth in what they are given. When people are shown something they are shown a perspective. The “light” shines on a small portion on the big tableau of life and truth.

Cheers,
Claire