Plato’s Allegory of the cave still applies in the current world that has adopted new technologies due to globalization (Friedman, 2005). If I use my translation, the story indicates how the general population that surrendered did not live a real life. They accepted the world in which they lived. Individuals are still blinded these days in the current world that we live in. Both the analog and digital media channels, such as televisions and magazines, prevent people from living in reality. Eve in the public world, it is evident that the modern ways of living still blind us, which continues to affect the way we live. Individuals tend to believe in everything portrayed on television, forgetting that most of the consumed media is not the reality. People continue to be tricked by television programs ad as much as we need to trust the media; all the programs aired do not reflect life’s reality.
Reality television is envisioned with many trusts and believes that some individuals go-ahead to change their lifestyles to match with the stars. Everything that gets aired on TV is scripted to attract viewers. No one can put their real-life out there in public for people to view. Additionally, reality TV stars seem to live such a perfect life from what they live. Media has enslaved people’s minds by making them believe in a life that is only but fantasy. The reality TV makers aim to make such scenes so dramatic for people to think. Anybody can write a script about their personal lives and publish on social media for people to see and read.
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In most cases, most people do this so that others can see their feelings. Technology has made it possible for us to access any information that we need. The vast world and people who can access technological platforms such as social media influence others to escape the real world and try to live in a different world away from reality. As much individuals are grateful for how technology makes them live in a different world, it remains questionable as modern-day captivity seems to be.
Any information accesses on websites could be false. Social media lies to attract individuals who can believe in such stories and read them. This is only beneficial to the writers of such information, but most people who consume such media tend to believe in everything that they read. Individuals can use the web to come up with gossip and a large number of fake commercial publications that one can hardly notice (Birkinshaw, 2017). Such information can easily blind a person’s mind and hinder them from living in reality. Plato was trying to point out that we often get so blinded by reality, and some fail to realize what to think or what to focus our minds on. People hardly shift their minds and focus on what they encounter in reality.
Plato portrays the behavior of individuals living in a false reality to the collapsing Allegory of the cave. He claims that there are tons and massive amounts of obscure in the world out there. From the moment a person is conceived, they are fed with a wide range of information, whether valid or invalid. People have become so possessed in modern ways of living that they fail to differentiate the good from the bad. The current society comprises media, schools, governments, and other things that blind people from reality. For instance, post-truth indicated the fact that even if people know about the real truth in government, nothing much can be done, and individuals continue to live in a blinded world even when the truth presents itself. People continue to avoid living in reality in modern times, much more than what used to happen in the past days. Today’s populations continue to live as detainees, and the perpetrators are in the form of the media, military, the government that treat people as puppets. Modern-day institutions control our lives and influence our actions, not unless we break the bondage from them and live a free life. The moment that individuals can break free from such bondage and see the reality that comes with administrations, they can know how much such institutions control our minds. Nobody can live in reality when under such bondage that hardly makes people realize that they live in captivity. As long people live a life believing that everything they experience in it is a form of reality, there is no way that individuals can break from the bondage of modern-day slavery until we differentiate what is real from what is fake. Most people, including ourselves, live in a world of relative ignorance. We are even comfortable with that ignorance because it is all we know (Plato) . Since the time when we entered the bondage of modern-day slavery, such a belief in anything portrayed on social media to develop so much trust in the government is when people started to live under their oppressors. Slavery has become so seasoned that people hardly give any kind of attention to it. What the government portrays as truth is most often out to a test by those specialized in politics. The countless social movements have pushed to see equality in participating in the political decision-making process as it is the only way to attain democracy. The government has, however, shut the public from providing their opinion when it comes to the decision-making process (Enfield, 2019).
Seeking the truth is not an easy task as lies already blind us. The government system is put in place to monitor people’s transactions and movements also observe the way we live. This practice has made people believe that the government cares for them, but it is a smart way to control citizens. Television media cannot just air anything. The truth is so much hidden that people came only access information that is beneficial to media houses through the control they have from giant corporations. What is aired on TV is far from reality . It is unfortunate that people have gone to the extent of trying to copy superstars’ lifestyles in reality shows. In short, anything consumed through media is scripted, and there is nothing real about whatever news that the media provides to people. Fake lives are lived on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram as people try so much to emulate the superstars. It is unfortunate that this is a kind of modern-day slavery and captivity that people can hardly break away from because it suits their fantasies and makes them feel better about their lives. We are all blinded by the reality that seems too good to be a form of bondage. The only way that people can free themselves from the current day slavery is by realizing that everything around them is not meant to benefit them but to benefit the lives of those who release such kind of media. The world lives in the darkness that it does not believe exists until people are enlightened enough to break the bondage.
When people will break free from the bondage, the day when they will be in a position to walk in the light, just as Plato said, the light is hugely blinding in that it can prevent one from seeing the reality. However, it is through breaking the false intention of the blinding light that one can find out the truth. Breaking from false captivity could individuals to see the truth and lead others to the truth as well. Therefore, people need to work together to cover the existing lies that have been coated so well to look like the reality of life.
References
Birkinshaw. J. (2017). The-post-truth world. Why have we enough of experts? Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/lbsbusinessstrategyreview/2017/05/22/the-post-truth-world-why-have-we-had-enough-of-experts/?sh=48fa5a0d54e6
Enfield. N. (2019). We are in a post-truth world with eroding trust and accountability. It can’t end well. The Gurdian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/17/were-in-a-post-truth-world-with-eroding-trust-and-accountability-it-cant-end-well
Friedman. T. (2005). It’s a flat world, after all . The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/03/magazine/its-a-flat-world-after-all.html
Plato. (n.d). The Allegory of the Cave. http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/platoscave.html
