Plato's Cave is an allegory that has been around for a great long time. I do not recall when I first was exposed to its powerful message but all my students know well the story for it is about changed reality. The thumbnail of the Cave is that people come into this world "chained" to the walls of a reality. The shadows we see bouncing off the Cave walls and ceiling become our currency of communication via stories, lore, etc. We that are chained to that Cave develop a culture which I define as the sum total of the behaviors of the Cave. We really do, over time, begin to think and act like each other the longer we are in the constraints; it is human behavior.
The Cave allegory goes on, however, to illustrate fundamental change when one of the Cave dwellers is released or actually unleashed from the constraints. Plato contends that the newly released dweller must then choose to seek to be re-confined back into the culture OR to seek to exit the Cave in search of determining why and what has been creating the images inside the Cave that has formulated the language of the culture. After discovery of the cause for the images, a bonfire with natives dancing around the fire, a new reality, the released dweller must then decide to either strip down and join the new reality or does human behavior drive the dweller, armed with this new knowledge, back up to the Cave to spread the new, good news to those still constrained. The answer is that the dweller will do anything to go back to explain to the still constrained dwellers, where life is still good in their common Cave reality, where the images are coming from.
It is here we see the power of the allegory for upon the re-entrace to the Cave filled with new knowledge, the unleashed returning dweller finds himself understanding operationally the term "shooting the messenger" for those still in the comfort of their chained reality really do not wish to hear about the new reality meaning rejection of the newly found knowledge.
In the work I get to do in teaching, I see this allegory play out out all the time which makes it a compelling driven inside me to release as many of these young minds from the Cave of their established reality to experience the cool water of a new reality in hopes they will return again and again to those still held by the chains of laziness, not caring, no drive, no desire to take a new path. All of this came flooding back to me in the snippets of the VP debate last night for I realized, at sixty-four years old, I was watching the old and the new sparring with each other. I wish I could avoid personal comments here for that only makes my blog today another "FB post" with political motivation but that is certainly not the case. Regardless of my political party of choice, it is the ideology I seek to understand and thus choose to embark on a path.
Thus, my take on last night and the previous POTUS debate grounded on several years of personal investment in studying, researching and watching the governmental process via CSPAN is that what we are seeing at the conceptual level is one party hearkening back to the golden days of post WWII when FDR walked on water, history would have us believe, or Reagan and his brilliance as he tip toed on the waters as well. Yet there is this now much young, intelligent, articulate "force" that would have use to cut loose the chains of constraint to move forward into a very frighting 21st century un-navigated channel of issues.
What I saw last night, certainly unsurprisingly, was a typical cocky, smart mouth, arrogant Biden that, for me, is an icon of exactly what I describe in previous paragraph of wanting to keep adding more chains on the Cave walls for more and more to remain inside the Cave of debt, entitlements and tepid diplomacy. Biden is mean spirited, cunning and when I think about that one heart beat from POTUS and him residing in the Seat, I quiver and have since he became VP. But in Ryan I saw a freshness, a knowledge of what he was talking about, a family man, a man untarnished in character and reputation; I saw the future and I liked what I saw.
Is the Romney / Ryan ticket perfect? Certainly not for I believe there are many potential candidates that bring more to our nation than these but have chosen to remain in the Cave apparently. In my heart I honestly cannot see how this nation can withstand another four years of what we have witnessed almost daily. Dozens of unelected, highly paid czars, inordinate Executive Orders, oexpanding government into every particle of our personal lives, debt we cannot even calculate with trillions more planned; the madness must stop. Never have I been sicker of even now four years into a presidency and the only spoken defense is what was inherited four years ago. No business on earth could or would operate on that defense. You take what you get and make it better; PERIOD! But still the blame and finger pointing at "W" continues and We the People deserve better, much better.
By the way, FDR was certainly not without his ghosts nor was Reagan but history airbrushes out those realities. This nation deserves a great leadership team which I do not believe we have currently and I am very tired of the constant campaigning. I am even more tired of realizing that POTUS electioneering is measured not by policy but by campaign funds flow. Multiple BILLIONS of dollars blown for a $400,000 annual salary position; doesn't that just smell strange to you? Also, I believe the greater issue resides at the Capitol than at that White House. That is a place that really needs a good cleaning out.
I want my children and my grandchildren to have a chance to succeed; it really is just that simple for me. Biden simply makes me want to slap him across the mouth and tell him to shut up for that is exactly what he needs but then the army of the political brotherhood that resides behind him in Pelosi, Reed, etc, etc all have that same arrogance. Tearing down an economic class of people that have made their wealth by working for it to pull up a class far too many of which are snared in the entitlement generational cycle is simply wrong. There are abuses in all the camps; I am not naive enough to not believe that. None of this is perfect for We the People are not perfect. All great empires throughout history were not lost to outside armies but to the weight of implosion on trying to manage and pay government workers and entitlements.
My greatest issue of concern ... why has Americans chosen to continue down the path of marching away from our God whose principles were the foundation of our Nation and our Founding Fathers commitment to that God? I guess all of that really means is that we are getting pretty much what we deserve, right?
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