Good Morning Neighbors. What a crazy time we are living in. If you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last couple of weeks you wouldn’t be aware that our country is facing an election crisis rarely seen before in American politics. It appears that one (or both really) candidate for President of the United States is unfit for office. But how in the world did we get here?
This seems like an ideal time to write on an parable I have intended to write about later, but now seems like the perfect time. As I have stated before I am not highly educated, in elite college definitions, but I am intelligent enough to listen to those who have gone before.
Over 2400 years ago an ancient Greek philosopher told a story that fits not only in with the events of the last couple weeks but fits with how we, as voters, have been hoodwinked by those in government, industry and media over an extended period of time. In 380 BC Plato wrote his Allegory of the Cave. In this allegory (story) there exists several distinct elements: the cave, the prisoners, the fire, the puppeteers, the shadows, the escape, the sun, and the return.
In the Allegory of the cave mankind has been imprisoned in a cave. These prisoners have been bound, forced to sit on the cave floor, and allowed to only face the cave wall in front of them. Behind these prisoners is a fire, and between the fire and the prisoners is a walkway for puppeteers to perform on. These puppeteers hold up various objects which cast shadows on the wall the prisoners are facing. These prisoners have only ever been exposed to the shadows, and over time the prisoners have named these shadows and believe that these shadows represent reality. In fact, for them they are reality.
One day a prisoner is freed and leaves the cave. However, upon exiting the cave he is instantly blinded by the brightness of the sun he’s never experienced. As his eyes adjust and he overcomes his initial pain and confusion, he begins to understand that there is more to his existence than what he was allowed to experience in the cave. Theres a whole world of experiences and truths he had been denied.
Feeling enlightened and maybe even emboldened he returns to the cave to free his fellow prisoners, but they don’t believe him. They don’t believe that there is a much bigger and better world just outside their existence in the cave. Their truth and existence have conditioned them, and they reject his notion of Freedom and Liberty. Does this sound like you, me, or us, neighbors?
What is your cave? Is it your daily life, socio-economic status, your reality? Have you allowed yourself to be trapped in a cave of your choosing? Maybe it’s an echo chamber where you assure your closely held beliefs aren’t challenged. Maybe your cave is not of your design. Maybe it’s been how your life has played out through events, successes, and failures. Maybe it’s a bit of both.
What is the fire and who are the puppeteers in your life? Too many of us have chosen our fire and puppeteers because they fit the reality of our cave. Can you objectively identify the elements and individuals in your life that are providing the shadows that are your reality? Are you willing to consider that the realities you’ve been presented might simply be an ephemeral shadow that you’ve chosen as your reality?
There is not a cave that you can’t escape from, but would you? In this allegory one person was freed and allowed to pursue a new “truth”. At first this individual was frightened and blinded to the true reality of the sun, but they were open-minded enough to question their prior reality. Eventually they decided that the truth was better than the story they had been presented, and they set off to free their fellow prisoners.
Upon returning to the cave the freed prisoner told his fellow prisoners not just about the truth of their situation but about the truth that lies just beyond the cave entrance in the sun. But these other prisoners didn’t trust the freed one and chose to remain in the cave and believe the reality presented to them through the fire, puppeteers, and shadows. That was their truth.
Holy cow, when I was exposed to this parable I was simply floored. How could a man write about our exact situation more than 2400 years before. Have you chosen your cave and the shadows that are presented to you? Can you name the fire and the puppeteers that regularly contribute to your reality? Is your reality truth, or is it simply the shadows presented to you that you’ve chosen as truth? Have you ever tried to escape the truth you’ve been presented, and if so, how were you treated by your fellow prisoners? Have you chosen the sun and its freedom or the cave and its shadows?
Everyday we are presented with shadows by puppeteers that rarely act in our best interests. Right now, we are being told to not believe our eyes, for reality isn’t what we are perceiving. Are you buying any of the crap you’re being sold? Puppeteers, snake oil salesmen, charlatans, hustlers, quacks, and con men are everywhere in your life. Have you chosen them as your source of enlightenment or truth? They are acting only in their self-interest, not yours. Will you escape the cave? Or maybe we should pull back the curtain and NOT ignore the man behind it. Because folks we aren’t in Kansas anymore. You are not alone!!