Answers to A world of ideas
Allegory of the Cave
CR:
Q2&Q5:
According to Plato, in the allegory, the prisoners were chained in a cave, unable to turn their heads. All they can see is the wall of the cave, which with shadows on it. Behind the prisoners, several people waving some object in front of the fire, casting shadows on the wall for the prisoners to see. The prisoners would spend their whole lives there, and therefore, it's naturally for them to mistake the appearance of the reality. If somebody go the cave, unchain one of the prisoners, dragging him to the light, the prisoner would first feel uncomfortable about everything he see; but as time passed by, he look in retrospect, he would felicitate himself on the change, and pity his old fellow prisoners.
We always hear about others talking about the danger of a single story, I think Plato's allegory reflect this idea pretty well. In the past, when transportation has not been globalized, the way we get to know about the other part of the world was nothing but very few descriptions about them. Therefore, deep in my mind, the first impression about America is gun-shooting, white tall guys and sex. These stereotypes were formed because we receive information solely in one approach. Another decent real-world example of the allegory is the reality of Chinese Internet. As we know, there actually two networks in the world: one is the Internet, which is shared by people almost all over the planet. The other one is the "Chinese local Internet". The primary reason for this is because the Chinese governments don't want its citizens to look through the whole situation. Hence, in this case, it's fair to liken Chinese citizens to the prisoners and Chinese officers to the people who waved the objects in front of the fire. Thus, what we see all kinds of media, including newspaper or Weibo or other social-networking are actually the shadows cast by the government. I think that the answers both for the ways we are like
CR:
Q2&Q5:
According to Plato, in the allegory, the prisoners were chained in a cave, unable to turn their heads. All they can see is the wall of the cave, which with shadows on it. Behind the prisoners, several people waving some object in front of the fire, casting shadows on the wall for the prisoners to see. The prisoners would spend their whole lives there, and therefore, it's naturally for them to mistake the appearance of the reality. If somebody go the cave, unchain one of the prisoners, dragging him to the light, the prisoner would first feel uncomfortable about everything he see; but as time passed by, he look in retrospect, he would felicitate himself on the change, and pity his old fellow prisoners.
We always hear about others talking about the danger of a single story, I think Plato's allegory reflect this idea pretty well. In the past, when transportation has not been globalized, the way we get to know about the other part of the world was nothing but very few descriptions about them. Therefore, deep in my mind, the first impression about America is gun-shooting, white tall guys and sex. These stereotypes were formed because we receive information solely in one approach. Another decent real-world example of the allegory is the reality of Chinese Internet. As we know, there actually two networks in the world: one is the Internet, which is shared by people almost all over the planet. The other one is the "Chinese local Internet". The primary reason for this is because the Chinese governments don't want its citizens to look through the whole situation. Hence, in this case, it's fair to liken Chinese citizens to the prisoners and Chinese officers to the people who waved the objects in front of the fire. Thus, what we see all kinds of media, including newspaper or Weibo or other social-networking are actually the shadows cast by the government. I think that the answers both for the ways we are like