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Parent Post: Are You Living in a Cave? Plato’s Timeless Warning
braven
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7/3/2026, 4:49:59 PM
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*True critical thinking never settles. Everything is up for debate, both what is inside of us and what is outside.* The Kingdom of Heaven is within. One could make much of why an ignorant soul would fear the unknown. Much talk about shadows......Jung seemed to be a fan of shadows, too. J.M Barrie had good ideas about shadows and good form...interesting take. Peter Pan and and the Lost Boys....caves and shadows. Plato gives us......a metaphor for ignorance? What level of analysis would do this justice......this is a deep construction....well worth examining. *And how did individuals end up chained, by force, by habit, by deception… or by own consent?* This is an interesting question....almost rhetorical...yes? By consent....positively not. Not a one of them would have the intelligence or the information necessary to consent to such a ridiculous circumstance. This is akin to 'freewill'....as if they chose their slavery. They did not choose it...though they do seem to be condemned to it. *The fact that Plato’s Allegory of the Cave feels relevant in 2026 is a sobering realization.* If you are good to entertain a conspiracy theory.....? Seems like this Allegory is relevant in 2026....in what respect? Universal patterns....of ignorance....are everywhere always. Philosophy is a strange animal.....used by even stranger animals. :) However.....there is a push right now on the internet with this Cave Allegory......odd stuff. Billionaires buying bunkers....caves and shadows....odd stuff. Patterns great and small....captivate the minds of all. Peace.😇
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sonatime
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7/3/2026, 11:50:03 PM
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*"The Kingdom of Heaven..."* True critical thinking never settles... You quote “The Kingdom of Heaven is within” — a saying of Jesus, recorded in the Gospels, and presented as divinely inspired. If you don’t actually believe in the Gospel or in God, I find it curious that you’d reach for that particular line. Not much in this world is sunshine and rainbows. An ignorant soul may fear the unknown, but the honest one uses knowledge, reason and courage to face it anyway. *"And how did individuals end up chained, by force, by habit, by deception… or by own consent?"* True enough, many or perhaps most, are born into the chains, or “consent” without ever being properly informed. That doesn’t make it true consent, just inherited circumstance. In that sense, the allegory works almost like a metaphor for original sin: we inherit a broken, limited condition we didn’t personally choose, yet here we are, chained, deceived, and largely unaware. Still, I’d argue that existence itself is more precious than non-existence. Even a flawed, shadowed life carries the possibility of breaking the chains and seeing the light. The alternative is… nothing at all. *"The fact that Plato’s Allegory of the Cave feels relevant"* The allegory feels relevant in 2026 precisely because of the enduring weakness of the human mind: our tendency to trust falsehoods, to be emotionally manipulated, and to systematically surrender our agency and free will by embracing comfortable lies while ignoring uncomfortable truths. As Carl Sagan warned: "One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back." And this isn’t just ancient philosophy, it’s been repeatedly observed in psychology, cognitive science, and mass behavior studies. Philosophy itself can be used both to find truth and to build a better, more sophisticated cave. The cave is a recurring pattern.
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braven
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7/4/2026, 3:51:36 AM
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*The cave is a recurring pattern* Yes...and more than this...it is our current reality. Most all live in apartment like caves and stare into their computer screens.....the shadows are everywhere of our choosing....the more sophisticated cave, indeed. *Still, I’d argue that existence itself is more precious than non-existence.* This for sure....is debatable. *Antinatalism* has a pretty solid defense. This is worthy of discussion....all good. *You quote “The Kingdom of Heaven is within” — a saying of Jesus, recorded in the Gospels, and presented as divinely inspired. If you don’t actually believe in the Gospel or in God, I find it curious that you’d reach for that particular line.* It is a good line. Not many good lines in the Bible for me...but that one is. And it is universally true for most peoples....regardless of belief. So it rings true on many levels.....which in good. Peace.😇
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