What if I told you all the fake people in your life can be explained by a 2,400 year old philosopher?
It's time to throw some shade in Plato's cave.
Here's the thing about humans: we don't change much over the centuries.
Technology changes rapidly, civilizations rise and fall, but some fundamental ideas remain.
Plato's Allegory of the Cave is one of those enduring ideas.
What is the nature of reality?
This question is as relevant in today's world of YouTube and American politics as it was in Plato's world of art and Greek sophistry.
Let's see how your fake friends demonstrate life in Plato's cave.
Imagine you're in a cave in a chair with your arms and legs strapped in as well as your head.
You can only face forward and on the wall in front of you can see figures moving back and forth.
And your whole life you've known these figures to be your reality.
You have no reason to believe anything else.
Oh, yeah.  You need eyes to see those.
One day, by some event, you manage to loosen your restraints and for the first time you're able to move your head.
As you turn around, you're blinded by some light.
Your eyes burn and you squint until they adjust to the brightness.
You see a ledge with a fire burning behind it.  On the ledge you can see people moving back and forth.
Some carry puppets and some cast their own shadows.
You look back at the cave wall and realize that what you thought were real objects were merely shadows cast by these people on the ledges who were illuminated by the fire.
Curious, you investigate the cave further and notice some other light coming from a tunnel leading out of the cave.
You climb and climb and it gets brighter and brighter.
You struggle to reach the exit, but you know there's something great outside this cave.
You finally get outside and you're again blinded by the light.
You look down to alleviate the pain and you notice something familiar: a figure on the ground!
As your eyes adjust, you look up and see this shadow is cast by a tree.  And there are lots of trees.
Beyond the trees there are mountains and animals and above all of that there is the sun, the ultimate illuminator, the light that makes it possible to see everything else.
You're astonished by this new discovery and you're eager to tell all of your friends.
You make your descent back into the dark cave, but, unfortunately, since you've been out in the bright sunlight for so long, you can't see a thing!
You eventually make your way back to where your friends are chained up and you find them staring at the shadows on the wall.
You tell them you've seen the truth.  But instead of accepting this, they're angry!
Somehow they manage to kill you.
Uhh... Let's say by laser-eyes.
That way, you don't go around shattering anyone else's beliefs about reality.
Plato's philosophical system sought to guide towards the ultimate Good
and it aimed to demonstrate that objects in our real world were just shadows of the ideal world of forms.
To Plato, reality was a kind of hierarchy.
At the bottom there were images and individual objects.
This is the world of the physical senses and this is where people are easily tricked into thinking these images are Reality.
At the top were thought-images and ideals.
This is the intangible world of rational thought and perfection.
Here you'll find things like scientific concepts about objects as well as thoughts about ideals such as perfect Beauty or perfect Truth.
As Plato's Allegory of the Cave explained, reaching this level of understanding takes work and it is not easy.
After all, most people are complacent and they're perfectly content with believing that the shadows and images that they see on the wall are Reality.
The work of the philosopher and teacher is to lead people out of the cave, away from the false images, and into the truth-giving light of the sun.
Unfortunately, for speaking the truth, the philosopher is often made into a villain and
criticized by the masses who cling to their precious shadows and misleading images.
I hope by now some thoughts are churning in your head about how Plato's cave applies today just as much as it did 2,400 years ago.
You've probably even seen or heard this idea before, but you never realized it was such an old concept.
So let's get back to that shady, fake friend of yours.
If you're in school, then that means you're surrounded by a lot of unique people.
And, really, a lot of them are fake.
But what does that mean in terms of Plato's cave?
When you say someone is fake, you're saying they're not real.  Duh.
You're saying he's presenting a certain image, but you know in reality that's not who he is.
For example, he acts nice and sweet in front of his girlfriend...
but you know for a fact he makes rude comments about her when she's not around.
Or, let's say he acts like a real tough guy around his friends but...
he cries when his mommy takes away his X-Box.
If you confront this person and point out these inconsistencies, he's likely to reject your observations of the truth.
And then he'll throw some shade in your direction, bringing up negative images about you, regardless of whether or not they're true.
This is Plato's cave at work.
People conform to images of themselves and believe images about others without ever questioning what's going on behind the scenes.
Stereotypes, advertising, movies, television, YouTube, video games...
Images posted on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat: they're all images, they're all shadows.
Trying to separate what's fact from fiction is a difficult task.
It's not always This or That, Yes or No.
There are so many images that we're bombarded with each and every day that we have to sort through
and sometimes we're tricked!
We believe things that we shouldn't believe because we see a certain image presented to us in a certain way that makes us believe a certain idea.
School as we know it is an excellent example of a world built on images and appearances rather than facts and reason.
How are students supposed to act?
What about teachers?
Principals?
What are you supposed to learn?
When are you supposed to learn it?
And for how long?
If you challenge any of the major narratives or expectations associated with school,
then you're labeled a troublemaker and punished in much the same way as the man in Plato's cave.
Plato's Allegory of the Cave is the foundation from which we can examine millions of topics and institutions.
As this channel and community grows, I'll be making reference to Plato, his cave, and the idea of Reality vs Images.
We'll also talk about other philosophical ideas that will help us better understand why school sucks
and how education and learning can happen more readily outside of such an institution.
Everyone is fooled at some point by the shadows on the wall.
The question is: Are you content with mere shadows?
Or do you want to break the chains that bind you and explore what's beyond the cave?
