Truth vs. Representation

            In my ninth grade history class, the first assignment was to draw Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. My teacher gave us Plato’s description, no help, and one night to come up with what we thought it looked like. Returning to class the next morning, we all had wildly different drawings. Everything was in different places; the walls, the path to the light, the puppets. Some had feet tied down, some hands and necks, some had all type of people, some had just men, Plato’s ideas had been transformed into thirty distinct ideas. We had taken his ideas and formed a tangible image of what we thought the story was describing. Not knowingly we had demonstrated what Plato was trying to convey, we had known the idea of his description but not what it really was. As I read Plato this weekend, I thought of what four years had contributed to my understanding of the allegory, and sitting in lecture on Monday, how my drawing skills had improved. Growing up you becomes more aware of themselves and their surroundings.  Moving away to college, I feel like I’ve been dragged out of the cave, forced to face the bright sunlight. We all had ideas of what life outside of our hometowns would be like and now we are experiencing them in real life. We used to rely on our parents for truth, and now we are forced to interpret things ourselves. What did our parents rely on? Were they seeing shadows as well?  One aspect of my childhood is specific to where I grew up; every few years San Diego would experience large destructive wildfires. Information about the whereabouts of the flames was crucial information, and parents relied on news coverage.

            The first time I remember feeling worried about the wildfires was in fifth grade, when school was cancelled on the day we were supposed to dress up for Halloween. Understandably, my renaissance princess costume was never debuted to my classmates, and I was upset. Instead the day was spent at home, and in front of the television, which was constantly turned to the news coverage of the fires. Later in high school when I sat again in front of the TV, home from a wildfire day off, I understood the huge power that news stations and anchors had. These were the people controlling the emotions of all of San Diego County. Living close enough to the ocean, I have never had to evacuate my home during these fires. My family had nothing to worry about, but the two news anchors on our TV screen seemed to hold our fate on what they showed us. There is a difference between showing an accurate map of where places are really in danger, and showing video clips of horses running away from the flames and vague aerial shots of trees burning. Nothing but coverage of the fires would play for days, so this time was filled with personal stories of people who had stayed behind to protect their homes and died. Transitioning between commercials flames would engulf the news channels logo. What were they telling us? Fear for your life, even though I have never had to evacuate.

            The news anchors were the people on the road holding up the objects and making the noises. We were the prisoners, chained to our couches. Twenty first century technology allows us to know more about our surrounding world but also allows a medium for knowing less. We didn’t question the news anchors, putting ourselves in the prisoners’ position.  In lecture, Professor LaVaque-Manty talked about representation versus truth. San Diegans were affected by the dramatic news coverage; we believed the representation because it was confortable. The truth is harder to attain. The prisoners battled with the sunshine because of the jarring truth, seemingly happier in the presence of the representation.

To experience the representation yourself, here is a clip from CNN during the fires of 2007: