Captain Harlock's blog: "Politics & Philosophy"

I'm writing this blog after a very interesting conversation with a fellow FuBar freind. Sometimes we are under the impresion that the people in charge of "things" are "competent" enough to be blindly trusted, Please take a close look at "The Allegory of the cave" by the great Plato, and be the judge. Enjoy.

BOOK VII
Socrates And Glaucon.

I. " Now, then," I resumed, " in order to discover our natural condition in respect of knowledge and ignorance, figure to yourself a situation which I may thus represent. Imagine a company of men living in a sort of underground cave-like dwelling which has an entrance open to the light of day, long-drawn, and answering in width to the whole of the cave; and in this cave they are detained from childhood, with their legs and necks so fettered that they cannot change their position and can see only what is in front of them, being unable, by reason of the chains, to turn round their heads. And further, imagine them to have light from a fire which is burning above, and at a distance behind them. Between the fire and the prisoners there rises a roadway along which fancy that you can see a low wall built, like the screen which the jugglers place in front of them, and over which they show their puppets."

" I see," said Glaucon.

" Figure to yourself also a number of people who are carrying behind this wall statues of men and images of various animals, wrought in wood, stone,  and in every possible fashion, and other articles of every sort which overtop the wall; and, as you might suppose, some of those who are carrying these objects are talking, others silent."

" You are showing me," he said, " a strange picture, and these are strange prisoners."

" They are like ourselves," I replied. " For, to begin with, do you believe that people thus situated could ever see anything else of themselves, or of one another, save the shadows which the fire casts upon the side of the cave directly facing them ? "

" How could they," he replied, " since all their lives they were compelled to keep their heads immovable ? "

" And what about the objects which are carried past behind them? Of these would they see only the shadows?"

" Undoubtedly."

" If now they could talk together, don't you suppose they would believe that they were naming as the things themselves the figures which they saw passing before them ? " *

" Of necessity they would."

" Well, how about this? If their prison had an echo from the side in front of them, do you think that, whenever one of the passers-by spoke, they would imagine the voice to come from anything save the passing shadow ? "

" I certainly do not," he replied.

" So that in point of fact," I said, " such people would hold nothing to be real except the shadows of the images."

" True, beyond all question."

" Consider now," I proceeded, " what would be the result of their release from chains and the cure of their delusion if a deliverance of this kind came to them. Suppose one of them should be unbound and should be compelled all of a sudden to rise and turn round his head, to walk and look up at the light; suppose further that in doing all this he suffered pain, and was unable, on account of the brightness, to look at the objects of which in his former position he saw the shadows. Tell me what you think he would say if any one assured him that heretofore he had been looking at illusions, but that now, as he is coming a little nearer to reality, and has his eye turned toward things more real, he sees more truly; furthermore if his instructor, while pointing out each object as it passes, should question him, and constrain him to say what it is; don't you suppose he would be embarrassed and believe what he formerly saw to be more real than what was now pointed out to him ? "

" Yes, far more real."

II. " And if he were forced to look at the light itself, would he not, think you, suffer pain in his eyes, and would he not turn back and take refuge in those things which he was able to look upon, and

think them in reality clearer than the objects shown him?"

" Quite so."

" If now some one were to drag him by force out of the den up the rough and steep ascent, and should not let him loose until he had drawn him on into the light of the sun, don't you suppose, while he was thus dragged along, he would be pained and angered, and, on coming into the sunlight would not his eyes be so dazzled by the brilliancy that he would be unable to see a single one of the things which are now called real ?"

" Certainly he could see nothing for a moment at least."

" So then, I think, habituation will be necessary if his eyes are to distinguish objects in the upper world. At first he would most easily make out shadows, next the reflections in water of men and of other objects, and after that the objects themselves; and then he will fix his eyes on the light of the moon and stars, finding it easier to look by night at the things in the heavens and the heavens themselves than at the sun and the light of the sun by day."

" No doubt."

" And last of all he will be able, I suppose, to see the sun, not in the water, or wherever its image is reflected, but he will look upon the true sun in its own appointed place, and will behold it as it is."

" Certainly."

" After this he will proceed to reason out that it is the sun which gives the seasons and the years, which dominates all things in the visible world, and is somehow the cause of all those things which he and his fellow-prisoners used to see."

" It is evident that by such steps as these he would reach this conclusion."

" Well, then, when he remembered his former dwelling, the wisdom of the cave, and his comrades in captivity, don't you believe he would deem himself happy in the change and would pity the others?"

" Yes, indeed."

" And in case it were the traditional usage of the prisoners to receive honors and commendations from one another, and to bestow prizes on him who was keenest to observe the passing shadows, and who remembered best which of them were wont to precede and which to follow and which to pass together, and in consequence was best able to foretell what was to come next, do you suppose he would be eager for these distinctions, and envious of those who are held in honor and exercise authority among them? Or would he find himself in the Homeric situation, and would it not be the case that far more willingly

' He would live on the earth and serve in the house of another, Slave to a landless man, and would endure anything rather than hold his former opinions and live the life of the den? "

" Yes," he said, " I have no doubt he would prefer to suffer anything rather than go on living in that way."

" Now consider this also," said I: " Suppose such a man were to descend a second time into the cavern and seat himself in his old place, would he not, on passing so suddenly out of the sunlight, get his eyes full of darkness?"

" Yes, he certainly would."

" But if now he were compelled once more to engage in a guessing-contest on these shadows, with those who had never been released from  chains, while his sight was still blurred, and his eyes not yet adjusted to the obscurity-(and if the process of habituation lasted a considerable time), would he not, think you, provoke the laughter of his companions? Would they not declare that, owing to his visit to the upper world, he had come back with his eyesight ruined, and that the ascent was not worth even the attempt? And if any one tried to release them and lead them up to the light, in case they could only get him into their power, they would put him to death, would they not?"

" Doubtless they would," said he.

III. " Now this entire parable," I said, " my dear Glaucon, you must apply to our former statements. The visible world is the prison house, the light of the fire in the cavern is the power of the sun; and if you will regard the upward journey and the contemplation of things above as the ascent of the soul to the realm of thought, you will not misapprehend my surmise, since you desire to hear it, though whether it be true or not, God alone knows.