Plato's Allegory of the Cave - A Philosophy Review

Plato’s allegory of the cave is by far one of my most favorite philosophical writings. It speaks to me about the power of seeing past illusions, seeing the world for what it is, and setting yourself free. However, there is also a significant dilemma that is also presented. Once free, do you have a duty to return to the cave and attempt to free others?

“You can’t unknow a thing”
- Lamare’s Father

The reason I enjoy reflecting on this allegory is because it applies to so much in life; food, finances, health, history, etc. Think about it. Let’s say something happens in your life concerning food. You have become sick and your doctor suggests that maybe something about your diet is the culprit. The hypothetical you is not content to just take prescription medications your entire life, so you start doing some research into your food.

Uh Oh

You find yourself running down a rabbit hole that seems to have no end in sight. There are insane chemicals in our food, food manufactures fraudulently use the term ‘organic’ to trick us, some restaurants make food out of ‘pink goo’, there is a thing called ‘mystery meat’, and sugar - that is in nearly everything - is more addictive to the brain than Cocaine.

Wow

You keep reading and researching. You find that chemicals in our water may not be the best for our health, soda is chemically engineered to make you thirsty and want more, pesticides bioaccumulate in the produce we purchase from the store, and meat-producing companies have hired an army of litigators to ensure that we never know the truth about what goes on in those meat plants.

There are a great many questions that start to flood your mind, and also a fair bit of rage toward the folks that have either misled you or allowed you to live in ignorance about something so important.

Now you can’t go to the grocery store and look at food the same. You now realize that unsafe chemicals are in virtually everything and purchasing clean food is more expensive. Unbelievable.

If you are familiar with Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, you understand this is a comparable analogy of realizing that what you are actually seeing on the cave wall are shadows, all of which are being created for you by people you can’t see that are positioned behind you. Then you realize that you are actually shackled in your position and find a way to break free OR someone unchains you, and you see that you actually reside in a small cave to which there is an exit.

You decide to escape the cave and find this entire world of things you never knew existed.

But then it happens. You remember your family members and friends that are still in the cave in awe of the shadows on the wall.

The shadows are a product of a reality, but not reality itself

As if programmed to follow Plato’s allegory, you find yourself having a conversation with an old friend, confidant, of family member and it happens. “Do you know what is in that food?” Or in Plato’s story, “Do you know that what you are seeing on the wall are shadows?” You find yourself passionately trying to share all your gained knowledge about food to this loved one so that they can make smarter decisions about their diet too. “There is an exit to the cave!” you exclaim.

“I freed a thousand slaves, I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.”
- Harriet Tubman [There is dispute over the validity of this quote and its attribution to Ms. Tubman.]

And as if your loved one is reading from Plato’s Allegory, they say it. “You’re crazy!”, “Those are conspiracies!”, “Those aren’t shadows you fool, that is real life.” They won’t believe you. Regardless of how much information you show them, studies, facts, health information, they love their mystery meat and you are just one of those weird health nuts.

I don’t gamble but I would be willing to bet that you have had this or a similar conversation with a family member about a topic. As stated above, this allegory is not only apt to food, but also finances, education, history, and many other topics.

CampFIRE Homesteading is, in a sense, standing at the entrance/exit of the cave to talk to you. We can see that defeated look on your face after you went back into the cave to tell you loved ones about the truth of a matter and they looked at you like you are insane. We have been there. We get it. It sucks.

How often do you look for ways to cut spending_ (7).png — …it is the comforting bliss of ignorance that makes us pick the blue pill…

There is an understanding that our message, or the truth, is not for everyone. Just as in Plato’s Allegory, we understand that there are some people that will believe the shadows on the wall are real life regardless of how passionate and factual our argument. They will believe the pink goo is real food. They will believe that being in mind-numbing debt is just part of the game of life.

I will answer the question I posed above: Do we have a duty to return to the cave?

I submit that its not a duty, but it will happen. We are all hardwired to share our truth. Just as if you were out and about and you saw a car that was about to plow into a crowd, you would yell, “look out!” However, we understand that people are not obligated to believe us.

What we do ask is that before you call us crazy for pointing out the shadows on the wall, you take just a second to turn around and look at what we are pointing out.

Plato likely understood that coming to awareness, obtaining a degree of liberation, and then attempting to free those still in servitude is all part of the process. As is being met with hostility by those you are trying to, in essence, set free.

“The veracity in which you believe a thing does not make it true. Conversely, facts don’t require your belief to be valid.”
- Lamare’s Father

One thing I would be remise if I didn’t mention is that Plato’s Allegory is not about believing. Nor are our efforts here. My father used to tell me, “You can’t believe something that you know to be true.” I know that some of you may feel the desire to counter this. I have come to understand this in a simple example. You do not have to believe the Sun rose this morning, and the morning before that, and the morning before that. It’s a fact. You can go outside and see it, feel it’s warmth, see it’s impact on your garden, etc. No one has to come and convince you of this. Because our brains process belief and factual information differently, its nearly impossible to ‘believe’ something you saw with your own eyes to be true and know to be true.

He would follow up the statement before with, “Belief is required when facts are lacking.”

I say again, we don’t want you to believe anything. We want you to know the truth about your food and money. We, as Plato suggested, want you to come to an understanding about the shadows on the wall, break free, and exit the cave.