Imagine you’re a cave-man (cave-being for those who care about me being politically correct). All you and the people around you have ever known is the cave and it’s inhabitants: the darkness, stalagmites/stalactites, hard bumpy rocks, bats, etc., etc. (use your imagination).
One day, while going about your everyday cave-man life, you bump into someone. This “someone” tells you that they’re from “outside” the cave. Confused you ask them to clarify, and they do.
They tell you that the world you know, in its’ entirety is but a cave, a small thing compared to the rest of the world. They tell you that the world outside is not only bigger, but better. They describe for you how things out there are brighter and warmer due to a thing called the sun (and that even when the sun’s gone there’s still light due to another thing called a moon). They explain to you just how wonderful it is to feel sand beneath your feet while walking on a beach (which they also explain). They describe for you just how pleasant it is to feel a warm breeze upon your face. They, fugitively speaking, give you the world.
There’s just one problem. While exploring the cave, they got lost and are now stuck in the cave. Shocked and bewildered by their story you take them to your village and bring them to tell the story to all the cave-people. After the retelling, some are as shocked as you, and some are not, they ask for proof, but you explain how they cannot provide proof because, as said, they are lost and forever more stuck in the cave.
The majority of the people, taking this as a reasonable explanation believe you; they proclaim that they shouldn’t live as an ordinary cave-man, but one of praise and reverence. After all, they have seen the outside world.
Now, after years of living in leisure and fame they naturally become old. While on their death bed, they pull you in closer and tell you a secret… They have never been outside of the cave. They have never seen such things as the sun, moon, or beach. They made it all up thinking that if they get enough people to believe them they could live a life of luxury. With their last breath they thank you for unknowingly helping along the way, you were a big help… Smiling, they take their last breath.
… F**ked up story? I thought of it while reading Plato’s allegory of the cave (in book seven of the republic and should be read). Plato’s allegory supposedly deals with truth and knowledge. But my [thought provoking] allegory deals with truth and knowledge in one person’s hand; My allegory deals with questioning the ‘Messiah’.
Should we put faith in one person? Is that person telling the truth? Should we question their story? Should we still trust the person even though they cannot technically prove their truths? or should we learn from the morals of this story and disbelieve them?
You decide.
photo credit: kevindooley