Exit Eassy

Francisco Infante
ENG099


“The Allegory of the Cave” is an argument by Socrates that most people live their lives chained in cave and spend there time looking at illusions made by the people who are controlling them. In a way what Socrates goes to say about the cave and how it is described is true. Looking further at the actual allegory of the cave one prisoner is freed and goes on to explore a new life outside the cave. We can relate that to the media in today’s society. The people who live in the United States for example aren’t familiar with what goes on outside their caves, but with news reports about what goes on out side of the United States and the other life styles of others or other caves that people live in, we explore a different world.
Some of the illusions that one can say we Americans have to face on a daily basis can scale from the long educational study we all go through to working our daily jobs. Reasons why I would consider these aspects of the American way as an illusion set by people who are in control is because there is nothing that can be done to avoid dealing with these basic principles. Some can argue that the media frees us from our caves by showing us other parts of the world and distributing the knowledge from that place to ours. Although I think that the media freeing our minds from our cave is still a bit vague. In my opinion what they are doing is easing our minds from the thought that we might be in a cave, while the higher power that is in control is well aware.
In our society, the images being put on the wall can be traced back to being put there by the government. Very often members of the government lie to us to keep us satisfied through media to keep the people living in these caves content, which is the reason why I think that the media doesn’t necessary free our minds but just keep it at ease. What we believe we are seeing in our caves, are nothing more then illusions set up by our government.
In a movie like the Matrix, you get a good understanding of where we are today and how we are all run by a higher power. Although in the Matrix the issue isn’t the government, its robots that rule the people living in this fake world called the matrix. The Matrix its self is related to the allegory of the cave, where the real world outside of the matrix is a comparable to perhaps hundreds of years from now, but the people living in the matrix are accustomed to the same life styles that have been lived for many decades.
In conclusion, “The Allegory of a Cave” is a great way to view the way we live our lives today. Also the media may not be freeing our minds entirely, but do take restraint off our minds on what we should believe and what we shouldn’t believe because at times they don’t agree with the decisions that the government has to make and bash them as well. Lastly, we can expect that as time progresses the standards of our cave will increase and the illusions will have a higher meaning.