Week 1 Allegory of the Cave

Refereing to Allegory of the Cave, I feel that we are all like the prisoners in the cave. If you base this Allegory to society in America you can see the resemblance. With advancing technology we are able to access information in many ways. This information is coming at us so fast that sometimes we don't have choice but to submerse by it.

In Allegory of the Cave the prisoners had it easy by only viewing what is in front of them of just shadows and echos. In modern day our ideas about our wants and needs are driven by outer forces such as advertisements, marketing firms, sights and sounds. We are bombarded with these "images". Its not as simple as just a shadow, we come a long way from shadows in a cave we have television, radio, internet, newspapers, movies, magazines, billboards, and music. The news outlets are controlled by large corporations with ties to heavy political donations to politicians. Its obvious that one should question if what we feel is "real" or have we become manipulated.

I feel that philosophy will bring the subject to the table about how do we think and feel as a person. To try to pause for a second in these fast moving times and think about what is real. One's personal goals in life and reason for living.

It feel that Socrates has the right to be pessimistic about life without philosophy because you need to show the seriousness of the situation. A world of people possibly going on with their daily lives totatlly unaware of the meaning of freedom and whats real.