Plato's Play-Doh

What is it with humanity's predilection for a fogbound existence, the softer and easier way, the don't-rock-the-boat mentality? Why are people afraid to think for themselves?

Plato's allegory of The Cave illustrates the problem perfectly: a bunch of poor shackled souls who live in a cave and never see anything but their own shadows on the wall. Most of them are apathetic and accept this reality without speculation. Some inquiring minds observe the patterns and try to understand their world, but Truth eludes them. One prisoner finally breaks free and escapes the cave only to be blinded by the light, but eventually he adjusts and sees things more clearly: the earth, the sky, the sun.

When this newly enlightened soul goes back into the cave and tries to describe the outer world, his news is rejected, perceived as a threat to the status quo. The cave dwellers are afraid to take that arduous but rewarding journey out of darkness and into the light. They'd rather kill the prophet. So the question is: Are you a seeker of truth? Or do you want to stay in the cave?

Plato's Play-Doh, the malleable stuff of our minds, resides in imagination, dreams, and our perceptions of the outside world. How we mold our perceptions dictates how enlightened we are to the immutable truths. Real knowledge. True reality. Some of Plato's ideas seem outmoded to today's modern thinkers, but there's no refuting this: if you don't work with what you've got and strive to get out of the cave, you will never see the light...