The Allegory of the Cave
Whenever someone wishes to begin the slow march towards enlightenment that comes from studying philosophy, they are inevitably faced with an important question, “where do I begin?” If the history of Western Civilization and insight is their interest, then most people would start with the corrupting influence of those wily Greeks. Ancient Greek philosophers laid the groundwork upon which all those who came after them built, so logically it makes sense to take it back to that humble beginning. First among these elder statesmen of philosophy was Socrates, but unfortunately for everyone, Socrates left behind no written works. He taught through dialog and everything we know about him was recorded by others. So instead, most people move on to his most famous student, Plato. Plato is the second generation of our great philosophers and unlike his mentor Socrates, he mastered the art of quill on papyrus.
Now, people in their quest for knowledge, armed with a starting point in mind, will go to the bookstore (or more likely Amazon) and purchase a copy of The Republic. They may read the book or allow it to languish on their bookcase collecting dust, either way, choosing it as a starting point in their journey is by no means a bad strategy. The Republic possesses some of the keenest insights into human nature written in the last 2500 years. There are many famous sections of the book, but today we will focus on the allegory of the cave which was written 375 years before the birth of Christ and 20 years after Socrates asked that immortal question “does this drink taste like hemlock?” Despite its rather ancient origins, there is much that can be gleamed about the modern world through this seminal text including one of the most pressing issues of our age, the problem of social media.
For those unfamiliar with Plato’s musings, allow for a brief recap. In Plato’s scenario, a group of people are chained to the floor in a cave and forced to face the wall. Behind them, a fire burns and other people, who are free, move objects in front of the fire. This in turn casts shadows over the wall like puppets, which dance, and play, and tell stories. If you were one of these poor souls chained to the floor, then your world would simply be the shadows. The shadows would be as real to you in the cave as anything you can see, smell, or touch in the outside world today, because reality as we perceive it, can only be what our circumstances reveal.
However, if one day your chains slipped off and you were able to turn and see the fire and puppets, your brain would resist at first. The light would hurt your eyes and the easiest thing to do would be to turn back to the cave wall and enjoy your shadows. But, if you persisted, if you climbed out of that cave and went up to the surface. If you saw the sun and the stars, felt the breeze and observed the people without chains walking about and making merry, then you would truly be free.
The problem for you would be that if you return to the cave to enlighten others then you would be viewed as a heretic. A lunatic who speaks nonsense about the sun and stars but knows nothing of the shadows. Your peers would resist the truth, just as at first you resisted. There lies the dilemma of knowing the light in a society of those who wish to remain in the dark.
Now, this allegory has been interpreted in countless ways. Parallels could be found about nature, reality, politics, religion, truth, or any other topic that one may wax philosophical. Part of the brilliance of the cave is how it stands the test of time because human nature remains timeless. People, for all our technological advancements, are still the same mammals that have existed for the last 200,000 years. Petty, vengeful, full of lust, and ego. When confronted about their wrongful views most people will either double-down on their convictions or poke their opponent with a sharpened stick.
Thus, the allegory of the cave endures today and is alive and well. Through the advancement of technology, society has moved out of the caves and into homes of comfort. Beyond shadows on the wall to an even more insidious reality, that of the screen. There is data out there that shows the average American now spends upwards of 7 hours on screens throughout their day. This is obviously a dramatic increase since the time of Plato. Reality itself is captured, uploaded, and shared around the world at the speed of light, where it is then digested in posts and 60 second videos by an audience that wishes not for enlightenment, but a quick hit of dopamine. Instead of truth, people are offered perspective and bias, dictated by algorithms and trends, and produced by propagandists to promote whatever they are trying to sell.
Make no mistake about it, everyone online is trying to sell you something. This has led the phone away from what was to be its original telos, being a tool for communication, and morphed it into an instrument wielded by those who want to manipulate the shadows on our wall. Those who engage in social media use have become both participants and victims in this modern-day charade. Whether it is the rather innocuous deception about how great someone’s life is, or the more destabilizing lies and misinformation that surrounds our politics, the internet is replete with con artists and charlatans intent on misleading us.
People are so entrenched in their beliefs, rutted into their own information silos, that they often fail to adapt and change with new data that contradicts their preconceived notions. The problem of the “bubble” has long been a discussion in relation to our politics, but it extends outwards into all areas of life. Neighbors no longer know one another, families and friends spend less time together, and partisans rarely talk to the other side and when they do, they often not only have different ideas, but also a different set of facts. It is as though we are no longer even trapped in the same caves, but instead in segmented caves watching puppet shows put on by different masters and mistaking them for objective truth.
Socrates offered no easy solution to bring society out of the cave, and likewise there is no quick fix to the issue of social media. Socrates viewed it as the role of the philosopher to seek the truth and impart their wisdom on the citizenry. So, any burgeoning philosopher today should attempt to heed that guidance. View the internet as a tool, one which can bring the collective consciousness of all human history to your fingertips but also possesses the ability to lay in your lap falsehood and ignorance disguised as fact. Treat everything with a healthy dose of skepticism just as a person would when confronting the shadows on the wall of the cave. Examine preconceived notions and first principles at every opportunity. Never believe yourself the unerring arbiter of what is true and good.
Most importantly remember, reality lies outside the phone or the computer. The flashing images we view on the screen are powered by our own modern fires burning behind us within electrical plants miles away. It is your job to turn away from the screen and observe the real world outside, to study and learn to discern truth from falsehood. This is the path that leads you from the cave to the light. That is how you discover what is real, and only then can you truly call yourself a philosopher.
