What is reality? Do you we think we
know what is true today?
What if I told you, that what you think you know of our [current]
reality is but a lie? A series of images projected upon a wall in a cave.
Plato wrote of such a thing in his “prisoners in a cave”
allegory. In it he describes prisoners being born in a cave, shackled, facing a
wall. Images passed in front of a fire, are projected onto a wall in front of
the prisoners. This for the prisoners, is reality. They know of nothing beyond
what they’re exposed to by the light. As the allegory continues, what if a
prisoner is somehow freed? He at once, seeing the fire, would be blinded by its
brightness, so that he would no longer be able to see the shadows. If told that
“this is reality”, in his pain and fear, he would not believe, and
would demand to be reshackled to the wall. Continuing further, what if he was
forced from the cave altogether? Again, he would be blinded by the light of the
sun. Eventually, as his eyes grew accustomed to the light, he would see the
world for what it truly is. Plato concludes the allegory by
suggesting that, seeing reality (for what it is), our freed prisoner would feel
sorry for his fellow prisoners, and seek to return to the cave, to help free
his fellow prisoners. Upon returning to the cave, our enlightened prisoner
would be blinded by the darkness. The prisoners, believing that the journey
outside the cave harmed this man, would fight to the death, any attempts to
free them from their bondage.
Freedom / Bondage
A similar story is told in the Bible, in Exodus 16:3, and
recounted again in Numbers 14:4.
The Israelites said to them (Moses & Aaron), "If
only we had died by the LORD's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat
and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to
starve this entire assembly to death."
I have always been struck by this passage. Would a people prefer
bondage to freedom? Seemingly so.
Today, we are increasingly faced with a contrived reality. A
mirage. Images shone on a wall (television screens, cell-phone, laptops)
portraying what our captors wish for us to believe (is reality).
What is truth? Let me suggest that truth, increasingly, is a
byproduct of force. Are any important matters reasoned true today, or are we
stuck in a battle of messaging wills? In this, let me suggest, the Left are
winning, as we’ve abandoned reason, and are left with, whatever message can be
advanced enthusiastically enough, to run roughshod over the other. As Goebbels
stated;
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people
will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such
time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or
military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for
the State to use all its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal
enemy of the lie; and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the
State.”
What we see playing out in America, and throughout the world, is
two starkly different worldviews: Freedom and the State (bondage). Of
course, bondage isn’t being sold as such. It’s being sold as “free stuff” and
“safety and security” from the ravages of hatred. Who doesn’t want free
stuff and safety and security? Of course, reason informs us that there is
no such thing as free stuff, and that safety and security for some, demands
that freedom for others must be infringed upon and/or suppressed.
Let me suggest that the
Left have ingeniously played the long game. For a century, they have patiently
infiltrated the institutions of influence; Academia, Media, Politics, and the
Church. They have operated in the shadows, advancing lies as truth. This past
decade has seen what I believe is the beginning of the final battle between light
and darkness. Between freedom and bondage.
What is truth, if we no longer live in an age of reason? A
discomfort exists amongst all. What is true has been abandoned, for what
advances the interest of my tribe, or the will of my masters? It is seemingly
no longer possible to reason a way forward, but to exert a force of will, to
advance one’s particular worldview. In this, we Conservatives are at a
disadvantage, and in my opinion, will represent our eventual demise.
Individualism (freedom), our greatest virtue becomes are biggest
tactical weakness. It is much easier to mount a force of will, when all of your
forces pull in the same direction, without question. In this, as a top-down,
command and control ideology, the Left have an advantage. Leftist masters
determine a pathforward, which gets disseminated throughout their
institutions of influence. Their foot-soldiers then advance on the path until
they’ve secured victory. See any man on the street video, where these clowns
are asked to articulate why they’re protesting. Watch any CNN or MSNBC (FAKE
NEWS) broadcast. Or, the actions of our representatives in Congress. Does
anything that they’re saying or doing ring true? Do they appear to be open
to reason, or are they advancing their force of will?
Let us appoint a new leader and return to Egypt (or the cave). In
the end, the people (the mob) will accept the comfort of lies (bondage), over
the reality of truth (freedom). Our efforts to free our fellow captors are
being met with fear and anger. As Plato suggests, they will fight to the death,
to maintain their belief that what they’re seeing on the cave wall is
true.
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/11/platos_cave_and_our_current_reality.html