I’m sure many of you have heard of Plato. Not to be confused with Play-Doh (although the pronunciations are uncannily similar now that I think of it). But the 5th-century Greek Philosopher.
Plato is known to be one of the most influential philosophers of all time. He was a student of timelessly revered Socrates and imparted his wisdom to Aristotle. Enough of the mini philosophy lesson, though. I’m here to talk about my favorite part of Plato’s legacy, his venerable Allegory of the Cave.
Background on the Allegory
Plato has Socrates ask Glaucon to imagine a cave in which people have been shackled from childhood. These prisoners can see in no other direction but the wall in front of them. A fire burns behind them, causing shadows to appear. In front of the fire and between the shackled is a walkway, on which others walk, carrying objects atop their heads. Since there is a wall that obstructs part of the walkway, the shadows do not come from the passersby but from the objects they hold. Noises come from the people, but the prisoners attribute these sounds to the shadows.
Since the prisoners have only ever seen the shadows, that is their reality. The world beyond the cave doesn’t so much as enter their radar; the possibility of the shadows coming from real objects is nonexistent. Socrates argues that this is the premise of indoctrination. Few humans ever see reality, because they’ve only been taught to see the shadows, a small sliver of what truly exists.
However, when one prisoner is freed, the light from the fire is blinding. He returns to his habituated spot in the cave, unable to fathom the reality of this unfamiliar world. If dragged out against his will, the prisoner would at first be enveloped in overwhelming discomfort. But, eventually, he would adapt to the lights, sights, and sounds of the real world, taking them in for all they are.
The formerly shackled man deems this new world better than the old one. Returning to the cave, the guy tries to convince his fellow prisoners of what he’d just seen and its grandeur. He is now blind in the cave, though. The shackled individuals interpret this as evidence of danger in the world beyond. Resisting his efforts at convincing them, they hold their ground and conclude that leaving the cave is dangerous, unwilling to ever leave their places.
Modern Day Relevance
Even if you hadn’t heard of the allegory before this article, I’m sure you’ve heard of it in another form: The Matrix. That’s right, this sci-fi action classic is based on the allegory. Remember the red pill vs. blue pill dilemma? When Neo must choose between remaining in the dream world or entering the real world? A clever rendition of the cave vs. reality issue. And to all my bookish folx, Emma Donoghue’s Room is also based on Plato’s idea.
At the center of the allegory’s premise are these dichotomies: ignorance vs. truth, fantasy vs. reality, liberation vs. imprisonment. To leave an existence of complacency invokes fear—fear of the unknown, fear of failure, fear of suffering.
Though our own lives may not be as extreme, they still bear the weight of this dilemma. Do we remain in our comfort zones, where we know the ins and outs, away from pain (although it may only be temporary)? Or do we face the blinding lights, in search of a greater truth, embarking upon unfamiliar terrain?
Here’s a personal example. There were two opposing forces playing tug-of-war with me as my college graduation loomed back in 2016. One side told me to get a job or to carry on with graduate school. It felt like the safer and more socially acceptable thing to do. The other told me to travel, because my heart yearned to see the world, and that was reason enough. Traveling would come with unknowns and would put me on a different path than everyone I knew. But it would also fill a void in my soul; a void that was comprised of curiosity and a desire for connection. My emotional desires won out, and I embarked upon a life-changing nine-month journey.
What I didn’t anticipate, though, was a sense of reverse culture shock when I returned. I felt like I’d seen and experienced so much—become an entirely new version of myself altogether—yet everything in my “normal” life felt the same. I wanted to shout from rooftops, filling the world in on my newfound knowledge. But it didn’t seem like anyone would fully understand this new reality of mine unless they’d left their “caves” themselves. It felt lonely in the beginning, I won’t lie. At the same time, though, I felt liberated, knowing what was possible in this existence. I didn’t want to tie myself down in pursuit of the material, because I’d seen that one could feel liberation in merely existing itself.
I know that your experience of glimpsing what’s outside of “the cave” may be entirely different. No matter the form, there’s no denying that flood of light that enters your consciousness when you realize that what you believed all along was a lie. That life doesn’t need to follow rigid norms or be lived under the shadow of others’ expectations. Life is wholly lived when we escape the shackles, venture out into the unknown, and reform faulty beliefs.
Like the prisoner in the allegory, we are probably going to experience resistance from those who aren’t ready to step out of their figurative caves. That’s the hard part. Do we feign conformity to avoid “rocking the boat” and distancing ourselves from our loved ones? Or do we trust that the new path may end up bringing us closer to others who share our vision of truth?
This is still something I’m working on myself. It can be hard to be “different” or feel out of place where we once felt like a piece of a puzzle. But I believe there are puzzles out there into which we were meant to fit all along; that everything else was molding us into where we need to be now. Heck, maybe there never was a puzzle! Perhaps we are always changing, keeping parts of ourselves in one place, while others break off and shift with the passage of time.
However you choose to see it, never question where the shadows come from, who’s making the noises, or what lies beyond the cave. For when we choose to turn around and face the world, we’re met with more than we ever could have imagined.