Believe Half of What You See

Believe Half of What You See and Nothing That You Hear

One of the most important lessons I have learned in my lifetime is to believe half of what I see and nothing that I hear. I know, it sounds like one of those old wives tales you hear from your Grandmother although in reality, it is even older. In   “The Allegory of the Cave”, Plato describes how things can be seen or otherwise perceived by the senses, whereas ideas must be thought out intellectually as a concept; abstract thought is not tangible, it must be experienced. While reading the Allegory of the Cave, several things came to mind; the United States government, the television network news media, and the Matrix trilogy starring Keanu Reeves.   Plato introduces The Allegory of the Cave having Socrates say that it is about education and in essence, the wrong type of education. My interpretation lies more along the lines of education and politics.
The Allegory of the Cave begins in a cave occupied with prisoners who since birth have been immobilized by chains from the head down; however, their heads have been chained in one direction so they are only able to see one wall. Behind the prisoners is a gargantuan fire, and between the prisoners and the fire is a wall with a walkway on top where statues of various animals, plants, and other things are carried by people. The statues cast shadows on the wall and the people carrying the statues speak leading the prisoners to believe the words come from the projected shadows. The prisoners soon learn to judge the forms by how well the forms speak, and eventually to judge each other on how well each individual judges these forms. One day, a prisoner is released and leaves the cave. Upon venturing out, the prisoner is blinded by the sunlight which he has never before seen. In time, the prisoner learns that the sunlight is the giver of life and of all things that have come to be. After being “educated”, so to speak, perhaps the prisoner would not want to go back to...