Blog 2: The Allegory of The Cave through History

Equality & the American Dream are two of many situations in life where people live in an illusion and refuse to accept the truth towards. The American Dream is a house with a white picket fence, husband & wife, kids and a dog; and with participation in the society and the economy, no matter the social class you're placed in, you have the ability to achieve prosperity. The ugly truth being destroyed in our brains is the mere fact of equality, and the American Dream doesn't exist towards all; that in fact it is limited.

Equality doesn’t exist; we are told to and believed in that everyone is equal. That woman can have the same responsibility as men and be equally acknowledged upon. From running for president to joining the army to doing hands on jobs. In fact yes, that has been granted to women in the form of equal rights. No doubt about it, everyone rights are equal but equality, woman to man, man to woman is just nearly impossible. For example, a five year old girl, playing with military dolls and guns; the parents of this child would be okay with that because a woman has an equal opportunity to join the military if the pleases. Now let’s say a five year old boy, playing with make-up, female clothing; the parents of this child would think that is totally insane and there’s no equal opportunity in him being a female and having female traits and that makes him less of a man. Now the girl playing with military dolls and guns isn’t represented as being less of a woman, only being represented as a woman who wants to fight for her country as a man would be able to do. The boy playing with make-up and female clothing is being represented as less of a man, because it isn’t an equal representation of what a man should be.

Now as far the American Dream, not all have the opportunity to grow up and give their kids/families a choice for a neither good education nor career. Let’s say a white female born and raised into a rich family versus a black female born and raised in poverty; the truth of the matter is the white female born and raised in rich is more likely to have the opportunity to have a good education leading to a good career and a good financial status. The reason of that is because her family was allowed to give her and hand her that American Dream along with hard-work and responsibility. Now as far as the black female born and raised in poverty, she has no standing ground, she doesn’t have a stepping stone to where she can achieve a good education, because without an education what exactly is she going to be able to achieve? There isn’t an equal opportunity here between the two, even woman to woman; one isn’t able to reach the goal of having the American Dream as to one can.

People are blind-sided by the truth that we are not equal but have equal rights. We aren’t machines that have the same built up complexity in which to perform the same task, with the same level of intelligence and skills. Just because equality rights have been given as far as laws doesn’t mean in nature, actual equality in between the lines of the rights are actually embraced and truth. The Gay rights law has been passed but still we live in proof that a gay man isn’t equal to a straight man. The Women rights movement to be able to vote and run for president has been passed but we still live in proof that a woman’s ability to run the world isn’t equal to a man’s ability to run the world.

(Summary) The Allegory of the Cave

In the excerpt The Allegory of the Cave by Plato, Socrates and his student Glaucon are having a conversation about how much our nature is enlightened or unenlightened of reality. Throughout the excerpt Socrates uses the fable of the prisoners who grew up in a cave, and a chance of the prisoners getting out the cave and being exposed in another world that we call reality. With the prisoners being caved in since their childhood, the reality as we see it, is way different from the reality the prisoner was born in, the Cave. There is more to the world of reality than we can see, touch, hear and taste.

Socrates states an inception, behold human beings living in a cave and they have been from their child hood, having their legs, and necks chained to one another so they cannot move, and can only see what's before them; reflection of themselves and other objects carried by people, preserved in fire bouncing from the cave. 'Suppose the reflection of fire came about the cave, suppose the prisoners hear sounds, words, from outside of the cave. Being the prisoners can only see what is reflected upon the cave, the fire now has noise of some sort being brought in from the outside world yet, some objects are silent. The truth of reality would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images.

Socrates then explains to Glaucon, what if the prisoners are released of their error. Those prisoners were so eager to move, to walk and turn, and look towards the light. The prisoner who does so, will suffer from illusion, and won't be able to reimburse the reality of which he was once in. But since he has been let out into the real existence of the world, he has a clearer vision of what reality really is. He will become enlightened by what he has seen and start to believe the cave was the dark of life. Just as one becomes introduced to a new enivornment, he will be required to grow accustomed to what he has seen. It is ethical that he does, a habit to adapt to what he's been introduced to. He will be able to see reflections/shadows in other objects, water, moon, the stars, the sun. When the prisoner remembers his old habitation, how will he adjust and be comfortable with his new habitation. How will he intrude the other prisoners? Does he tell them, or pity them because the cave has been all they have seen?

This entire allegory, Plato has based human beings being trapped inside of this unenlightened reality of the world while there is more than what we are living in, more than what we can see eye to eye. Socrates tells Glaucon to not misunderstand him, to interpret the journey to be the soul of the intellectual world, to have a belief of what he desires. But Socrates goes on to say, in his opinion in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is only seen with effort.

Blog 1: The Cave & I

Being introduced to the wonderful world of movies and shows at a very young age I began to believe in fairytale endings. With fairytale endings also known as happy endings, I started to believe that nothing could go wrong in any situation. From Disney Movies to Romance Movies, there was always a happy person or situation that has overcame a bad decision. My parents convinced me that true love, real love, fairy-tales existed, I never questioned to believed otherwise. My first relationship, at the age of 16; it was everything I ever dreamed of that a fairytale had concluded: “love at first sight”, “the first kiss”, and being appreciated above all with such high emotions drawn to this person until the obstacles and stumbles came along the fairytale path. No one ever explained to me, the bad decisions one could make in a relationship that’ll make believing in a fairytale ending lose hope and value.

6 months of a fairytale waiting to burst into a year, two years, three years, maybe a lifetime had been snatched away from me within a few minutes. Sitting down in the park, he says “I have something to tell you.” Sitting there, just wondering what the “surprise” could be, what could possibly go wrong? I confidently said to myself, nothing, and nothing at all. Well I was wrong; a bad decision had been led to my attention. “I cheated” “I had sex with another girl.” He said. I didn’t know how to react to the words that were computed through my ears and into my brain. So I sat there, just wondering if fairy-tales had these types of problems, felt this type of pain I was going through. Right then and there, I jumped out of my fairytale world and realized this was my reality. How could this happen? Weren’t I supposed to be happy forever? This doesn’t happen when a girl falls in love with a boy. What went wrong in the matter of 6 months? At the age of 16, dealing with all the painful emotions were enough to drive me into knowing any decision or situation can have its painful moments. Not every situation or decision involves in someone coming out happy in the end.

Being in a relationship wasn't my only fairy tale downfall. Every situation possible after had a domino affect, from family to friendships; all had failed me. My inability to transition from fairytale to reality was a blow to the person I was built up to be, an aggravated person I became. Figuring out and coming out of this cave I built up of being so happy and believing in nothing could go wrong had been shattered into pieces by someone else but I yet, walked out of.