Growing up with a severely alcoholic father who suffered from bipolar depression undoubtedly came with much abuse, pain, and humiliation. There were seldom days where quarrels and violence wouldn’t ensue; whether that be in my home, in the home of another, in the car, in public, or in an entirely different country. Rendered a prisoner without means of liberation, being victim to his behaviour and living in a world of perpetual chaos nearly everyday for years on end became normal. Since the day I was born, a toxic family dynamic was all that I ever knew and thus became desensitized to my surroundings. My reality consisted of constantly expecting the same events to unfold and allowing my emotions to divert me from the truth behind what was really going on and why. I resented and placed blame on my father, mother, brother, and even myself for this trauma-filled burdensome life; until my parents finally separated. Once removed from the situation, my entire reality flipped on its head, which led to confronting many hard-hitting and uncomfortable truths about myself and my heavily distorted perception of life.
Similarly, in Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave,” shackled down by chains inside a cave are prisoners whose circumstances allow for them to only make sense of what happens before their eyes. Their reality consists of shadows displayed on the cave wall which they believe to be true since it’s what they’ve always known. They don’t consider that perhaps they’re mistaken because their current mindset and view of the world albeit a false one, provides comfort. That is, until a prisoner is freed and forced to look at the reality behind his deceptive life. The truth hurts the prisoner “…which will make him turn away to take and take in the objects of vision which he can see, and which he will conceive to be in reality clearer than the things which are now being shown to him” (Jowett). Plato suggests that recognizing our ignorance and having to learn sobering truths about our reality is challenging, and we often want to remain oblivious as it’s easier to hold onto our pre-existing notions of existence.
For much of my life, I was bitter towards my father’s addiction and illness which put all of his problems on us. However, what I realized only when he was no longer in my life, was that he was suffering just as much as we were. His actions and behaviour were the result of the trauma he faced in his life, and making the conscious choice to not drink was beyond his control. Hating the person who’s in the wrong is especially easy when you have to live with them, as it’s the only way we are able to make sense out of our anger and pain. Sometimes this ignorance is the only option because it’s much harder to understand the reasons behind actions, empathize, and forgive the person who has brought upon that very pain. Not only does our ignorance become bliss, it manifests into a negative method of how we cope with unfortunate circumstances in our lives. And although this can be effective in the short term, ignorance only leads to suffering down the road.
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Truth be told that, “even if you choose to shut your mind out to the realities of the world, its inner workings still hurt you. In many cases, this ignorance will affect your quality of life and happiness…”(Western mastery). Despite the medium through my father dealt with his problems being wrong, learning about the realities of the world and other people instead of holding ourselves back, gives us the opportunity to have a more realistic outlook on negative circumstances. Had I stuck with the old perceptions about my reality, I wouldn’t have transcended into a higher level of knowledge outside of my emotions and become more accepting towards my father and others alike. However, what matters more than knowledge itself is what knowledge we choose to focus and expand on. We may not have complete control over the experiences in our lives, but we do get to decide how we respond and what we take out of them. The meaning you give your experiences will always change how you feel and the emotion you feel becomes the quality of your life. Yet, we often fixate on all of the wrong in our past, rather than carry the lessons forward. Indeed, there exists a world outside of the one we create and it takes strength to step outside of our comfort zones and think differently than we once did. And for the sake of our inner peace and self progression, it’s worth it.
Since emerging from my own cave, I can’t help but feel sorry for those still stuck in it, including my former self. But the truth is we don’t want to be aware of the problems we feel like we can’t solve. True knowledge is often associated with pain and we believe that by knowing, we risk losing the blissfulness of ignorance. Plato believed that we all have the ability to learn, but not everyone has the desire to. It’s the desire that’s important because we have to be willing to learn different realities that may be hard to accept at times. Knowledge and the progression out of the cave-like mentality is difficult. And although we can be physically bounded, more often than not we are prisoners of our own minds who choose not to be free because we are comfortable with our current mentality. Nonetheless, the truth is out there, whether we choose to acknowledge it or not. If we alienate ourselves by purposely creating a disconnect between our inner thoughts and outer reality, we are unable to see things as they really are, with the true perception needed to make good discernments. Rightfully put, “Philosophical education requires a reorientation of the whole self; it is a transformative experience. …education is not just a matter of changing ideas or changing some practices, it is a process that transforms one’s entire life because it involves the turning around of the soul” (Medium). (1022 words).
Works Cited
- “Is It Best to Learn the World’s Inconvenient Truths, or Is Ignorance Bliss?” Western Mastery, 21 Dec. 2017, www.westernmastery.com/2017/06/01/ignorance-really-bliss/.
- Lodhi, Anam. “Education and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave – Thoughts And Ideas – Medium.” Medium.com, Medium, 21 June 2017, www.medium.com/indian-thoughts/education-and-platos-allegory-of-the-cave-bf7471260c50.
- Plato. “Plato: The Allegory of the Cave, from The Republic.” Translated by Benjamin Jowett, Plato: The Allegory of the Cave, from The Republic, www.indwes.edu/academics/jwhc/_files/Plato_s Allegory of the Cave.pdf.
