"I will hold on hope, and I won't let you choke on the noose around your neck...
...So come out of your cave walking on your hands, and see the world hanging upside down. You can understand dependence when you know the maker's land."
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| http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/PlatosCave.gif |
Okay, so what? Of course, we all know that in the Allegory of the Cave, Plato describes a problem we all seem to have. We are all the prisoners in some sense, chained up, forced to look at only shadows casted by those above and behind us. We can't be sure about what reality truly is, we only know what is shown against this wall. We don't know what the breeze feels like. We don't know, or at least don't appreciate, the true beauty of it. We all insist that we think that we know, though, and that's a fallacy in and of itself. Let me elaborate.
This election season was distressing for me. Surrounded by uncertainty, finger-pointing, and some frank idiocy, I just wanted to escape it all. I was sick of hearing people complaining either way, saying that this country was going to be in shambles with Romney, or "God forbid we have four more years of Obama". It was refreshing to talk to some people who chose to not vote because they didn't know enough, yet distracting to listen to people rant about how politics don't affect them so they shouldn't vote. American Election Season, to me, should be a holiday. No, not so we can all be sure to hit the polls, but so that I can be in peace with my decisions, left to believe what I believe (not to be potentially persuaded by organizations on the Diag) and let others do the same.
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| Just like the chalk fades in the Diag, interest in politics fades shortly after Election Season, awkwardly taken by yours truly! |
One recurring theme I've seen these past couple of weeks has been the diminishing interest in politics. Because I'm very active on Facebook, I get the pleasure(?) of watching people argue, I get to unintentionally know who many of my friends (Facebook friends, that is) endorse, and I get information about the issues streamed to my phone endlessly. Wait, I can't say endlessly. What I meant by the diminishing interest in politics was that, well, Election Day±two weeks gave me the most stuff to work with. I watched as, in bell-curve fashion, statuses about the Presidential election unfolded. Today, I see little to nothing posted that's relevant to what happened only three weeks ago. People who once said "Go out and vote, this is the biggest decision of your life" now show no interest. Everything is back to normal. Nobody seems to care. There are no articles being posted about happenings in the government, that's old news.
"I will hold on hope, and I won't let you choke on the noose around your neck...
...So come out of your cave walking on your hands, and see the world hanging upside down. You can understand dependence when you know the maker's land."
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Exhibit B. A very passionate right-winger. While I wholeheartedly respect her passion and relative knowledge about the issues, I'm a little bit disturbed. This same person went on to say that the majority of Americans she knows are lazy couch potatoes. I don't like how she referred to me as a lazy ass for not completely supporting Romney. Claiming Obama will destroy this country is a little far-fetched as well. This being said, I still believe that somebody is perfectly entitled to say these kind of things on a social networking site, as long as they expect the opposition and are able to offer some rebuttal toward it. To everybody who commented, wanting to respectfully debate (and I mean it, they were respectful!), she shooed them off with statements validating her close-mindedness. She said things like "I'm not going to change my mind so don't even try" and frequently a very vague ":)".
It's things like these which bother me about election season, and I just realized it (Facebook was less charted territory four years ago). It really does bring out the worst in people. It causes conflict among old high-school acquaintances and transforms social networking into a war ground for just a few days. Then, give it eighteen days and people stop caring (after the media stops caring as much, not surprisingly). People stop caring after the issue of politics returns to a state in which it 'doesn't affect them' and isn't surrounding them.
So, are we all prisoners? Yeah, we are. We see what we're taught, we see what is televised. The "reality" is what we see against that wall. We don't know what each man in politics stands behind, because he hides it. At the same time, we often times conceal any effort to make sense of what these men say. None of us can know everything, but every one of us can and should know something.
Plato's Allegory is so versatile. Now that we're young adults, we need to get out of these chains. We should say nay to our past influences (though not completely, to completely disregard how we've thought growing up is dangerous) and spread our wings, and we should make sure that we see the true reality, whatever that entails. We all need somebody, or something to have hope in us, and to not let us choke on the noose around our necks. Maybe, if we open ourselves up, we can come out of this cave, walking on our hands, and see that the world is, in a sense, hanging upside down. We can understand that we are dependent on what other people tell us when we know what we're really living on.
I apologize for the part highlighted in white. Something went haywire.
ReplyDeleteGreat post and I liked the Mumford transitions. I agree with you - some of the most disheartening things I hear this election season I read on Facebook. Social Media is the best amplifier for ignorance in history. The unsubstantiated, hateful language that pervaded my newsfeed really encompassed the false, yet confident perceptions of reality that Plato's cave addresses. People only want to hear one side of the story and incapacitate themselves from taking another perspective. Democrats watch MSNBC. Republicans watch Fox News. Kids think as their parents think. I am not trying to sound condescending, as I am the result of the same process. My parents did not attempt to instill their political beliefs in me, but I could not help but be influenced by their opinions. However, the problem arises when people start talking as if their information and opinions are infallible. It is important to remember politics is largely a matter of interpretation, rather than fiction versus nonfiction. Two educated people can be presented with the same set of facts and possess a different opinion about them. We shackle ourselves in the cave when we are unwilling to at least examine an issue from a perspective different than our own. One can only be confident about their opinions when they understand the other side as well.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post- I'll be honest that you drew me in with your Mumford & Sons connection (I'm a fan!) but you had some really great, insightful things to say. I can see exactly what you mean: the whole social media thing is probably undeniable and it is disheartening to see that such a form of communication is how most people our age are fed political information. I also thought your point about how impressionable kids are when it comes to a parents' views was really shrewd- my dad is one of those people that, even though he claims he considers the opposition, always responds to opposition from the other side with disdain and groups "those people" under blanket adjectives (and not nice ones). When I was younger, I followed what my dad said. However, growing up I've really liked getting to form my own opinions, one of the those opinions being that Facebook isn't the place to make a political status- if you feel that strongly go do something about it, don't just type it. In reference to the Mumford song- do you think they were trying to make some kind of political statement? The song was released back in 2009- why do you think there has been such hype over it now?
ReplyDeleteI can really relate to what you're getting at in this post. As far as elections go, we're all somewhat in a cave. We learn about politicians through different news reports or articles, which are often times biased. They cast shadows they want us to see and we take them as reality. It's hard to leave that cave with all the different types of media trying to sway our beliefs different ways. But I think we have a responsibility as voters to work hard to leave the cave and find out the truth. And as for Facebook, I agree that it's not the place to post ridiculous status' about politics, it just makes you part of the media trying to create shadows. When I logged into Facebook on election night, I saw way too many political statuses.
ReplyDeleteI want to start off this comment by saying that Mumford & Sons is a great band! I completely agree with your main points in this post, and your words expressed what I was often thinking during election season. During late October and early November, I saw more Facebook arguments over politics than I care to remember. Most people participating in these arguments were disrespectful, ill-informed, and unwilling to consider the opposition. I even know some "friends" who are refusing to talk to other "friends" because they were involved in a Facebook political argument. Wouldn't it be interesting if we all refused to watch MSNBC or Fox News? These awful excuses for news stations are a huge reason why a majority of Americans are kept in the cave. We are constantly fed biased information from sources that claim to be fair and balanced. I think that you also raised a very valid point about parents influencing the political beliefs of their children. I can say that I was definitely a victim of this. Over time, I have been able to formulate my own beliefs and opinions based on facts, but I definitely followed my parents blindly as a young child. At the end of the day, I think that most reasonable people can agree on one thing...keep your political opinions off Facebook!
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