Plato tells a parable,
in which men are in a cave surrounded by darkness. They are chained so that
they can only see the shadows in front of them. If a man was released, he would
slowly emerge in pain and he would not know what is going on around him. He
would observe the new world with awe and wonder, realizing it to be far better
than the cave. The man returns to the lowly realm in the cave and tries to tell
others and free them of their bondage of ignorance but is only met with
rejection and hatred.
Earlier in The Republic, Plato records conversations
of Socrates. He discusses the ideal leader and what qualities that leader would
have. He then explains the training for the Guardians to satisfy the goal of
the commonwealth, which was for the greatest happiness of the whole. Then he
discusses the roles of men and women and proposes that women be given the same
opportunities for Guardianship as men.
The cave parable
illustrates perfectly the extent to which men are ignorant. We are, as Plato
said, ignorant of the truth; the truth being God. God saves us from darkness
and calls us into light. Once we are free, we are no longer of that world and
can rejoice in our freedom. However our duty is to go back into that world and
tell others about the light. Because we know the truth of our ignorance, our
mission as true disciples of Christ is to minister to those in need, which is
also what Plato instructs the knowledgeable to do. The Matrix illustrates perfectly the relationship between the cave
world (the matrix) and the real world. Though miserable, the free people of
Zion would never willingly return to the matrix because they know the truth,
and do not want it to rule their lives. The free men return to the darkness to
free others, but, as shown in The Matrix,
“not all are ready to be freed”. The essential problem that prevents Plato’s
ideal world from being reality, and that prevents men from turning to the light
is pride. Pride is at the heart of “Men, who above all else desire power”
(Galadriel). In the parable, the man who returns to the cave world to save his
fellow men similar to Jesus in that he left his world of beauty and descended
down to minister to the ignorant. They “despised and rejected” him and scorned
and murdered him. Even though men are chained to their ignorance, they will
rather die than examine their own faults and serve an almighty God. Socrates
was not afraid to look within himself and found the eternal truth, the infinite
God. He, like Paul, realized that because of eternity, to die is gain.
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