When one has got used to the idea, that everything we see and know is reality, it can be shocking to be told that we live in a world of deceit. Coming out of the cave for Plato is being exposed to the truth, and adjusting. Encountering a new reality can be awful. However, for Plato it will be worthwhile being enlightened and coming out of the cave because eventually our world will be better. In the Matrix when an individual comes out of the cave, his reality will also be shocking but when he adjusts to it, it will not be a better world but a dystopian one.
In our current society we have human beings who reject coming out of the cave and prefer to stay in their comfort zone. As Plato mention "the prisoners don't know their prisoners, this is the only reality they know" (The Cave). People are not aware that everything they know, everything that has been taught to them has a bigger reality that they can ever know. These people Socrates would have called "sleepwalkers" (John Chafee's Philosopher's Way Textbook). When one does not ask themselves what? Why? This is giving in and allowing to live a world of illusions and dreams created by others. Philosophy is resisting the given. As Plato said “the true Philosopher would seek to escape the cave” (Chafee’s Philosopher’s Way textbook). The cave meaning the physical world. If one follows and believes in everything they have been social condition to believe, they live a world of illusion.
In our current society we have human beings who reject coming out of the cave and prefer to stay in their comfort zone. As Plato mention "the prisoners don't know their prisoners, this is the only reality they know" (The Cave). People are not aware that everything they know, everything that has been taught to them has a bigger reality that they can ever know. These people Socrates would have called "sleepwalkers" (John Chafee's Philosopher's Way Textbook). When one does not ask themselves what? Why? This is giving in and allowing to live a world of illusions and dreams created by others. Philosophy is resisting the given. As Plato said “the true Philosopher would seek to escape the cave” (Chafee’s Philosopher’s Way textbook). The cave meaning the physical world. If one follows and believes in everything they have been social condition to believe, they live a world of illusion.
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is more accurate than the Matrix because I have personally experience being enlightened and coming out of Plato’s cave. Awful, shocking, not easy to adjust, but once I did adjust; my world became much happier than it ever was. Everything I knew, everything I had been taught, religion, moral & ethics had all been part of what my family and society social condition me to believe. As I came out of the cave and began for the first time thinking for myself, I realized that there is a bigger reality than we can ever know. Most people who have not have a Philosophical encounter, everything their taught becomes a habit and they eventually start repeating everything they hear. As Socrates mentioned people (“sleepwalkers”) “think they know stuff” (Chafee’s Philosopher’s Way Textbook). Socrates was a wise man, but he was wise because he knew that he didn’t really know. He spent his whole life searching for answers and at his death he knew that “the only thing we know, is we don’t really know”. Sleepwalkers (people) think because they Google something, or heard it somewhere, they know for a fact that is true. No way! They don’t know anything.
Coming out of the cave can cause pain, because you will see that you are not going to find answers to your questions. This can be very stressful to some people because “the only thing that is certain is that nothing is certain” (Socrates). If one believes in God and is now exposed to knowing that we won’t know if he really exists or not, this person can lose meaning n their lives. God resemble something great for them and now it’s all gone. This can definitely make certain people’s lives a living hell. They would have rather stay inside the cave where they were happy to know that a God really existed then to not be sure. I believe the Matrix is trying to show a dystopian world where people can’t cope up with it as a symbol that uncertainty can cause people’s lives to ruin. In that sense it would have been better to live a lie than being exposed to the truth.
However, both the Matrix and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave are similar to me because all the individual has to do is turn that dystopian world into an utopian one, As the famous Marine Phrase “ adapt, overcome, improvise”. To me is a satisfying feeling knowing that “the only thing we know, is we don’t really know”. At first of course it can be a dystopian world being uncertain of things and skeptic, but you turn that world into a utopian one where you strive everyday to seek for truth and knowledge. “Living the unexamined life is not worth living” (Socrates) and I plan to continue living the examined life, which is quite exciting, I must admit.
No comments:
Post a Comment