Blog 1: The Cave and I (Revised)

In today’s world people are so used to seeing things in their own ways, so accustomed to believing in what they want to believe is true. Yet when it comes to facing the truth, they choose to ignore it, simply because they can’t handle it. In Plato’s allegory of the cave, he stated that the “fear and pain” of enlightenment would make the prisoner go back to the cave, “will he not have a pain in his eyes which make him turn away and take refuge in the objects of which he can see and which he will conceive to be in reality clearer than the things which are now being shown to him”. I think the best position for me personally is to face the truth. Life’s a challenge, facing the truth, even if it means being rejected by society and family.

People today are so ignorant from the truth; they would rather live in an illusion that’s comforting to them. I would rather face the truth because I would want know what’s out there. It like they say “Knowledge is power”. Facing the truth knowing you’re going to get hurt, its life. It’s our pass mistakes that help us to grow. Learning from them helps us to succeed where many others have refused to try again.

According to the passage where it says that “how come they see anything, but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads”.  For example, my best friend whose parents have provided everything for her, pretty much her entire life are so controlling and uptight that she could never fend for herself. Her mom is so over protective, she gets dropped off and picked up from school every day. These are people that could never deal with complicated and difficult situations on their own because they don’t know how too, because parents are too protective of the sons and daughters and by not allowing them to see and do certain things on their own or letting them fight their everyday battles, they will not have a clue as to what the real world is. People that grew up like that, only knew what they parents allowed them to know. If they had to face the truth at a later age, certainly they would want to go back to “living in a cave and being shielded” from this twisted reality the “real world” because it’s nothing like what they grew up in. The truth can be tough for many to handle. Especially when dealing with it in our everyday lives. Parent may shield their kids from the bad things that go on, but they can’t save them from everything.

I think that living in  a cave ignorant of the truth, but safe in the comfort of the illusion for many people is very understandable, because many of us do, but facing the truth will set you free. It will make you a stronger and capably person. It may take a lot of courage to come of the dark, but seeing what out there is a real eye opener. Changing someone is difficult like the prisoner in the cave, because  he has grown accustomed to the dark, but he was forced to and he did. According to the text “last of all he will be able to see the sun, and not mere reflections of him in the water, but he will see him in his own proper place, and not in another; and he will contemplate him as he is”

I think it’s better to face reality and get hurt. The society we live in today, being ignorant is never a good thing, because things happen that we can’t explain, “expect the unexpected” in life.