Can Plato's Allegory of the Cave Be Applied to Today?

Plato had many different ideas on human behavior and philosophy. Sometimes it's hard to understand his ideas and where he comes from on his ideas. Many things he thought can be applied to today's society while others can't. His book The Republic is full of ideas from what the meaning of justice is to the Allegory of the Cave, which is probably be Plato's most famous theory. The Allegory of the Cave was able to be applied and discussed in his time, but does the Allegory of the Cave really apply to today's society? Does it still fit to describe human behavior? First what is the Allegory of the Cave?

Plato's theory on the Allegory of the Cave is somewhat complex, but simplistic at the same time, he discusses it in about the middle of The Republic about page 224. The Allegory of the Cave is that we are chained to a wall (all facing the wall). Behind us is another wall with figures walking across it, behind that wall is a pit of fire. The firelight casts shadows upon the wall in front of those chained to the wall.

Because we are chained to the wall we believe the figures are what they represent. Meaning if you see the shadow of a book, you believe that is really what a book looks like. According to Plato, there are times when one pulls away from the wall and breaks free, the others try to talk him back to joining the wall but he finds a way out to the real world and sees it for what it truly is. But despite all that person's efforts those chained to the wall refuse to leave.

Because we are chained to that wall we are afraid of what could be behind us, because we never look. We are afraid of the unknown and the things we don't already understand which is why when the one person breaks free and learns, those of us still chained to the wall don't listen to him. When chained to the wall, you are content in what you believe is true instead of thinking and learning for yourself. But once broken free, there is a feeling of exuberance and freedom. You learn things, experience things, and strive to learn and see more. Breaking free from the wall would change your perceptions about the world and what is fully out there for us to experience.

Today we are still chained to a wall, but that wall is the media and stereotypes. We believe that the stereotypes we see on television, movies, and even books are the exact representation of things. That is never the truth. People often believe that all Muslims are terrorists, or that all Christians are evangelical preachers both of which are not the case. We tend to believe what we see on the news or as previously stated movies. Stereotypes are always used to depict a certain type of person, nationality or religion. When people think of blondes they imagine a full figured airhead, or when anyone thinks of anyone from Iraq they imagine a Muslim terrorist that they see on the news since September 11^th. The fire behind us, aka the media, is depicting unrealistic ideals of people and places.

We need to break away from the wall, stereotypes and fight our way past the fire and out to the world to see things as they really are. We need to reeducate ourselves on what to believe about various different things, mainly the different cultures around us. We need to clear our eyes and readjust our screens so that we don't allow the stereotypes to pull us back to the wall and the ways of stereotypical thinking. Once we break free from the stereotypical, hypothetical wall we are able to see people for who they really are, individual people not the stereotypes we see. We will be able to learn and seek more knowledge. We will no longer be afraid of the unknown, but see it as a way of gaining more knowledge.

Plato had various different theories on human behavior and the way we act. His theory of the Allegory of the Cave can be applied and view in terms of today's society. You can see the way people act and react to others in terms of the Allegory of the Cave, and explain things in those terms. Though Plato may have had complex theories, when you get down to it, it's all about interaction, understanding and accepting the things we don't know or understand.