Luv, Romance

Upon reading Plato¶s ³Allegory of the Cave,´ I was impressed on how well the posed scenariogave such a mentally descriptive metaphor to any society and their stubborn unwillingness to look outsideof conventional ethics.In my eyes, the people inside the caves whose reality consists of the cave and its shadows relateto the people of a society who live their lives, doing whatever they can to meet the norms and fit in. Theseindividuals never question the shadows directly in front of them, as those shadows are the only realitythey know. They have no reason to look beyond or question the shadows because they have no idea thatthere may be more; there may be other ways of living life.The individuals who provide those who are chained with the images, and give them their falsereality are already enlightened individuals of society. These are the people who have already found their way out of the cave and have learned of the true world they live in. People such as these fuel the falsereality to those in the cave yet at the same time are the ones who will inspire the others own personalrealizations. You could think of these people as the individuals of society who don¶t follow all the normsand are true to themselves and live by what makes them happy, and not by society¶s standards.As the individuals in chains live life they are constantly exposed to those outside the cave. I believe that the more they are exposed to the ³free´ individuals and notice that they are not bonded tochains they begin to question their own reality. Here I believe that as those in chains gain their inceptionof the possibility of an alternate reality (or another way of living), they set themselves free of their own bonds and gain insight to the exit of the cave; the path to enlightenmentWhile walking out of the cave towards the light, the now free individual may be in the middle of shadows and bright light and begin to question his/her transformation. If they decide to continue however,they will be exposed to a new way of life, that may take time become adjusted to, but will in fact givethem more happiness. The ability to think for one¶s self, outside the conventional ethics would give suchfulfillment to their life that they themselves may plan to inform others of the true reality. But, in fact,those who are warned will simply deny any proposals of change, and they themselves are the only oneswho can free their shackles and chains to go down the path to enlightenment.*This really reminds me of the discussion between Socrates and Thrasymachus. Thrasymachus lives avery close minded life and when Socrates tries to get him to think for himself he will not have any part init. He himself is the only one who can begin thinking for himself and accept alternate ways of thinking.