Blog Prompt 4:
Is there a parallel between the status of the prisoners in Plato’s cave and the spectators in a cinema? In other words, how are we deceived by movies and other media? Do we mistake fiction for reality? Is it possible that this physical world isn’t reality?
In Plato’s cave the prisoners knew nothing of real life except that which was presented to them. What they experienced was merely shadows and their attempts to classify any meaning to the shadows would prove not very useful in any environment other than the cave. The prisoners in the cave can’t turn their heads and see the person pulling the strings. Art and television work in a very similar fashion. What we normally experience is a polish piece and at it’s best is an artist’s attempt to imitate nature or another outward or inward phenomenon. In Shakespearean plays, love is always so difficult but passionate,families are vicious and everything seems dramatic. Now this is not real life. And if this is all that a person gets to experience or if they play to much into the story that the actors and directors are portraying they will lose site of what is actually realistic and might have some odd expectations of what life should be based off a story.
Depending on where you were born you have subliminally been given standards on achievements, beauty, things to own and status. The media aids in this subliminally messaging by embedding these standards in literature, movies, TV and we believe that living up to these standards is what life is. If the messaging in these various medians were changed our sense of what is important in life would also likely change. Some how a 100% cotton shirt with a brand name label shirt can cost over 100$. If your like me and don’t make that much money 100$ for a tee shirt is almost 10 hours of your life. But Some people would rather stay home than be caught in off brands and this is a part of their reality. People obsessed with owning the most expensive fashion or technology have to sacrifice other parts of their life but because society has so strongly impeded these superficial aspects of life as virtues.
Anything is possible, so yes the the physical reality we experience may not be true. Like the prisoner’s Plato’s cave we could be bound and victims of our own imagination. There are surely many aspects of reality which humans are not fully experiencing or aware of. In fact, there always will be so in a way we will always be stuck in darkness and it is the nature of our imagination to flicker like a candle and fill in the gaps.
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