Platos Allegory of the Cave and the Emperors New Clothes in Americas Democracy - Essay Example

Name: Tutor: Course: Date: Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and the Emperor’s New Clothes in America’s Democracy Plato’s Allegory of the cave and the Emperor’s New Clothes points out the fact that people have to choose what is right in life as opposed what makes them popular. The Allegory of the cave goes ahead to ask people to think about how they lead their individual lives. Human beings have to examine or evaluate their lives from time to time; they have to stand for truth and good values. Merely moving in the direction of the masses lives a lot to question in regard to making personal choices from an informed perspective. The political class in the society makes the masses believe that what they are presenting is the reality or truth and, therefore, they cannot be questioned (Sedley 257-9). Modern democracy does not necessarily mean liberalization of the mind into thinking independently and making the right choices. The ways in which American citizens choose their candidates for President highlights this fact. How do they make their decision or arrive at the best candidate? How do they seek information about running candidates and what really influences their decisions. This essay examines Plato’s Allegory of the cave and the Emperor’s new clothes in relation to the modern setting of the American democracy and how citizens choose candidates for President. People are enslaved but they cannot realize it by themselves. In the light of truth, the ignorance appears to be safe, secure, and it is hard to explore other paths guided by the truth. The allegory of the cave shows the education of the soul as it gravitates towards enlightenment. Plato creates an image of captives in a cave who are chained facing a blank wall. They are only able to see images projected on the wall from things passing at the entrance of the cave, and commence to ascribe forms to the shadows. In Plato’s perspective, the shadows are close as the prisoners can get to knowing to reality. A philosopher is a prisoner who is freed from the cave and understands that the shadows on the wall are not constitutive of reality. He is able to see the true picture of reality. The allegory of the cave shows an extended metaphor of existence of human beings, and the transformation which transpires after philosophical enlightenment (Brown 1-17). When the light of truth shines after the transformation, man is excited about sharing it with the rest of the world. The first Matrix film in the Western world was a direct interpretation of the allegory of the cave as portrayed by Plato. In the Emperor’s New Clothes just explains how it takes the wisdom of a small child to point out the truth. The story points how many people are blind to the truth; it was only the small child who bravely pointed out that the king was nude! The other people feared to be referred to as fools and therefore continued to applaud the king and gloat at his “naked suit” (Elliott 138). Plato’s philosophy was a Greek reaction to the dramatic defeat at the hands of the Persians. He pointed out a nation which had completely given up any hope of winning in a battlefield. The system of thought of Plato worked like a virus. It weakened the strength of the conquerors by letting them know that the real was actually unreal. From the allegory, reality is not usually directly perceived. Human beings are captives in a cave and they are unable to comprehend anything but their own shadows without realizing that they are in captivity. The shadows dance and interact; they represent humanity while the cave represents the world. A Human being does not realize the position he is in today like the way Glaucon reacts when he told the allegory by Socrates in the fictional story, “You have shown me a strange image, and they are strange prisoners”. Socrates quickly reacts, “like ourselves” (Watt 14-16). This shows that many people do not understand the blindness in the current system and they perceive themselves to be enlightened and not enslaved. Plato’s interpretation of the allegory of the cave was that human beings generally are like chained captives in the cave: the world that appears to be real to them is not unlike the shadow which is cast on the wall. The real things are ideas with archetypal forms likened to the people the caveman cannot see walking behind him because the chains do not permit him to turn his head. A philosopher is that person who breaks free from these chains and he is able to turn his head and see the real things from a different perspective. He has to break free from the bondage of the physical world. From this perspective, he is able to see the real world of forms or ideas. Consequently, Plato proposes that nations have to be led by philosopher kings. There is no need of democracy since the unthinking masses are not unlike the captives in the cave who are unable to tell the shadows from the real phenomena (Elliott 138). The wise kings were better rulers than democratic rulers who had been elected by masses who could not differentiate the real world from the unreal world. From this analogy it can be deduced that Plato preferred the Persian way of government that was ruled by a king’s monarchy. In the modern society the United States choice of candidates for President actual reflect the kind of imprisonment that Plato fathomed in his imagination. The ratings that the candidates get prior to nominations or the real elections by the public are highly influenced by the information that is obtained on social media. In the recently concluded United States election, the power of social media in shaping public opinion was witnessed. Through research and intense investigation, candidates gather information on what people want them to tackle and they are meticulously coached on how to handle these issues. The image that is presented to the public in the media is what the people would like to see and, therefore, they hate to be told be told the truth. No incumbent president would accept defeat in tackling some of the national issues for fear of losing votes when runs for re-election. People are easily led to believe a lie when the majority of people believe the same lie. No one dares to wander into unexplored paths for fear of the unknown. Public opinion and eventually decision on the Election Day is shaped with what is seen in the media. The media shapes the opinion about an individual who is vying for President. Sometimes people will be blind to reality because they want something different. Romney’s comments during a fundraising tea party about the 47% of American population who do not pay taxes cost him votes. The story was hyped in the mainstream media and portrayed Romney as non-sympathetic to the struggling poor and the middle class. Many people may have decided where to cast their votes from this information which was carried in the media. Americans are too busy grappling with issues in their lives and few of them have time to personally search for information and authenticate claims about their leading candidates or the opponent. Sometimes exaggerated ‘truths’ carried in the media become the only avenue of accessing information about the candidates. Insecurity, unemployment, and health care improvement are some of the basic promises that candidates make to the public in order to be elected. The economy may be plummeting and the Wall Street may not be doing well, but a candidate will promise jobs and free health care for the poor and the middle-class. The running candidates know what the public want to hear and they definitely tell them exactly that. Negative comments in the media can lead to people perceiving the candidate in the negative way and less likely to vote for him. Whatever is popular becomes acceptable to many people without thorough interrogation. The public live debates that are organized for presidential candidates and their running mates should not be a basis of judging the performances of candidate. The candidates are thoroughly coached on how to tackle questions from their opponents and how to remain calm and put up a good show. There is no person like the child in the Emperor’s New clothes story who is willing to point out the truth without fear. People want to move with the winning team and some will vote for the leading candidates since the ratings shows that he going to win. Few people are willing to step out of the cave like philosophers and explore the truth. They want to believe what they are being told without having the trouble of searching for the truth themselves (Plato, & Jowett 1941). The candidate that emerges as the winner is not necessarily the best candidate but the one who was well packaged by the campaign team to reflect what the public want at the time. Media is manipulative and it is used to shape public opinion. Many people fall into this trap and make their decision by merely following what is being said in the leading media houses. The projections made by opinion polls change the position of some voters to lean towards the favorable candidate. The decisions made in an elections is the reflection of what people want to see like the captives in the cave who could only see images on the blank wall. Social media like Facebook and YouTube have been widely used in the election campaign. People upload fabricated stories about candidates and some voters believe these stories and end up choosing the other candidate according to the will of the person behind the story. People have to seek for truth themselves and question the popularity of candidates whether it is as result of good values that he portrays. This is why Plato preferred ruler Kings who were wise in The Republic and were not chosen in a democracy. The choice of many is not necessarily the best choice. People have to examine their decisions by first seeking the truth about the subject in question. Opinion shapers in the society are not necessarily right and many times people who tell the truth are isolated and hated. Work cited Brown, E., Justice and Compulsion for Plato’s Philosopher-Rulers, in: Ancient Philosophy 20, 2000, 1-17. Elliott, R. K. "Socrates and Plato's Cave". Kant-Studien 58 (1967), 2: 138. Plato, & Jowett, B. Plato's The Republic. New York: The Modern Library, 1941. Sedley, D., Philosophy, Forms and the Art of Ruling, in: The Cambridge Companion to Plato’s Republic, Ferrari, G.R.F. (ed.), Cambridge 2007, 256-283. Watt, Stephen "Introduction: The Theory of Forms (Books 5–7)", Plato: Republic, London: Wordsworth Editions, (1997), pp 14-16. Read More