Allegory of the Cave Brings

¶ … Allegory of the Cave brings out of the essential doctrines of Plato, which emphasizes the human need to rise from the darkness of ignorance and evil to the light of Good, symbolized in Book 7 as the Sun. It discusses the state of mortal men in their un-enlightened condition, as human beings chained and strained in an underground den (Plato 390 BC, Taylor 2006). Not only are they constrained to look around, above and below, but a screen hides objects and activities from the path of their one-way visual direction in that condition. There are movements, people and objects behind that screen or wall but these chained or un-enlightened mortals are not even aware of them. They cannot even converse about the possibility of other realities than the shadows they only vaguely perceive. If they can, they will probably agree that such possibilities exist without their knowing or perceiving them. They may hear the sounds of those movements, people and objects on which to base their guess. But in the meantime, in their condition, the only truth or reality there is, is the shadow only of those vague images (Plato, Taylor).

When these chained and restrained mortal beings are ever released from their imprisonment and made to turn and train their vision and walk towards the light, it will not be easy (Plato 390 BC, Taylor 2006). It will even be painful for them to accept the light or glare to which they are not accustomed. In that state, he will fail to recognize, much less accept, the reality of things in the light and the unreality of shadows. They will not be able to apprehend or comprehend that their shadowed condition is unreal. They will be confused and then refuse to change their perception about reality (Plato).

The author describes the condition of un-enlightened human beings who resist a change of mind when confronted with the unrealities they have grown accustomed to. Men are creatures of habit. Fortunately, it happens only to those who are un-aided by external or internal enlightenment or are obstinately and arrogantly resistant to instruction and enlightenment. There can and will be those who will seek instruction, enlightenment and release from darkness (Plato, Taylor).

Plato argued that the best form of government was a republic as he delineated it in his work (Wiessner 2006). In his mind, a democracy would eventually head for mediocrity and doom society because the will of the people was the worst of all lawful governments and the best of all lawless ones. His argument posed in his time seems most relevant today when applied to issues like social welfare, unemployment, crime, drug abuse, individual responsibility and the immorality of politicians and bureaucrats. In may ways, democracy proves to be the antithesis of the stability promoted or permitted by a prosperous capitalistic Republic. It is America's free enterprise economic system, not a democratic government or its educational system, which gives it stability. Other thinkers like Aeschylus, Sophocles, Aristophanes, Aristotle and Demonsthenes, shared Plato's doubts about the viability and desirability of democracy as an effective and efficient form of government. They foresaw that freedom for everyone would mean waste, expense and social disorganization. They imagined how the more diligent members of society would work more than the others as an inherent curse in a democratic form of government. Efficient and well-motivated people would care for, feed, produce for and clothe those who would lack their self-motivation and take advantage the spirit of free enterprise (Wiessner).

It was not the democratic principle of achieving absolute freedom, which substantially to national stability in the U.S., but the American republic's traditional idea of respect for law and order (Wiessner 2006). As long as American democracy promotes absolute freedom, the U.S. is on its way to chaos, anarchy and a national catastrophe. The pursuit of individual freedom without respect for authority will eventually lead to these consequences. What keeps U.S. strong and independent is that free enterprise and not the illusion of a contemporary democracy. A basic difficulty in American democracy is its attempt to mitigate all the aspects of negative human nature. Criminals are given equal rights as honorable individuals. Dysfunctional citizens are given thorough protection by the Constitution and allowed to practice their negative behavior in the same environment as honorable and conscientious citizens, shielded equally by laws and served by greedy lawyers and the first 10 amendments to the Constitution. These 10 amendments undermine the teachings of the Ten Commandments and thus destabilize the foundations of the Republic. The prevailing hypocrisy of democracy has been weakening the republic and will eventually lead to the decline and fall of the much envied American way of life. Another basic weakness of the current American democracy is the fact that only 40-50% of its eligible population actually casts votes in national, state and local elections. This means that the outcome of elections does not represent the will of the majority, which is the foundation of a democracy. Citizens who do not participate in this very important exercise of their freedom and performance of their obligation should be denied citizenship and the privilege of voting. American democracy derives from suspicious assumptions that man is innately good and can be trusted and that he cares about himself and the world. People should earn the privileges they enjoy and maintain them only through honorable public goals and behaviors. These earned privileges should not be permanent but subject to termination in case of misconduct, such as illegal drug use, abuse of oneself or others, criminal behavior and general contempt toward persons and society. Problems of the current democratic form of government in the U.S. can be handled only by reforming that society of equal and permanent rights for everyone. Plato and other ancient thinkers and American founding fathers were moral men who set before themselves models of public conduct and independent spirit, which should be imitated and should be the basis of laws and practices (Wiessner).