Plato's Allegory of a Cave, Wachowski's Matrix, and Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time
Plato's Allegory of a Cave is a story about prisoners that are chained underground, who can not see anything except for shadows caste on a wall by a fire. The only thing that these prisoners can see is the shadows of people. Eventually, one of the prisoners breaks free of the chain and ventures out into the real world. In the real world the freed prisoner discovers that the shadows in the cave are created from light diverge off people. He recognizes there is a whole new world filled with light. The freed prisoner is very confused and blinded by the light so he decides to return to the cave. When the prisoner returns to the cave, he shares what he saw in the real world with the other prisoners. The remaining prisoners treat the freed prisoner like he is crazy and they tell the freed prisoner that the real world does not exist. The prisoners in the cave do not believe in the real world because the cave is all that they know exists.
Platos story is a close parallel to the film The Matrix and Marge Piercys Woman on the Edge of Time. Platos theory suggests that masses should be silenced in order to discourage desire because desire leads people to be unjust. Thus, equilibrium is needed to create peace and prevent chaos between two powerful worlds. The parallel of Platos theory can be seen in Marge Piercys Woman on the Edge of Time. The novel is about a chosen person, Connie, and her journey to keep peace between the machine world and the human world. Connie has special communicating powers, in which she is able to contact two completely different future worlds. The first world is a total utopia where Connie communicates with Luciente. The utopian world is a very high spirited, trustworthy, healthy community which is extremely peaceful and relies very little on technology. The world in a dysutopian, is completely controlled by computers, and humans are slave-like to cyborgs. This world is very dirty and the world was completely trashed. Connie lives in the present, where the worlds future is threaten by complete control by machines or a world with no technology. Like the prisoner in Platos story, Connie is shunned by society and put in a mental hospital.
In the Frontline episode The Vaccine War, a progressively distressful debate ensues among many scientists and doctors within the public health system and an unnerving alliance of parents, politicians, and celebrities. The topic of debate is the overwhelming pressure parents feel to vaccinate their children and their right to decline such vaccinations. In several American neighborhoods, groups of parents have been exercising their right to refuse vaccinations, which has elevated anxiety on the return of vaccine-preventable diseases such as pertussis and measles. The reason such parents are denying their children various vaccines such as the MMR “triple shot” for measles, mumps, and rubella is because they are convinced that it is linked to autism, a link that has yet to be proven. Many of these parents are focused solely on their children, not taking into account that their decision may put the American populace at risk for disease. Such parents are not thinking about other members of society that vaccines don’t work for, and in certain adolescents the effects deteriorate, thus only when every person is immunized the “heard immunity” is successful.
At the beginning of the 1900s, there was a “sexual revolution” in New York City. During this time, sexual acts and desires were not hidden, but instead they were openl...
This essay will analyse whether the iconic representation of the roaring twenties with the woman's new right to sexuality, was a liberal step of progression within society or a capitalist venture to exploit a new viable market. Using Margaret Sanger's work in comparison with a survey conducted by New Girls for Old, the former a more mature look at the sexuality and ownership to a woman's body and the second a representation of girls coming of age in the sexually "free" roaring twenties. Margaret Sanger is known as "the mother of planned parenthood", and in the source she collates a collection of letters to speak of the sexual enslavement of motherhood through the fulfilment of the husbands desires. While Blanchard and Manasses of New Girls for Old suggests the historical consensus that the flapper is a figment compared to the reality where promiscuity was largely condemned.
The Allegory of the Cave has many parallels with The Truman Show. Initially, Truman is trapped in his own “cave”; a film set or fictional island known as Seahaven. Truman’s journey or ascension into the real world and into knowledge is similar to that of Plato’s cave dweller. In this paper, I will discuss these similarities along with the very intent of both of these works whose purpose is for us to question our own reality.
Sternheimer, K. (2009, October 19). Everyday Sociology Blog. Everyday Sociology Blog. Retrieved January 20, 2014, from http://nortonbooks.typepad.com/everydaysociology/2009/10/sex-its-not-what-it-used-to-be.html
The killer was notorious for his executioner mask, and he also had a symbol of a cross with a circle around it. His first attack occured on December 20, 1968, which involved the death of a young teen couple. Betty Lou Jensen and David Faraday were shot to death in Vallejo, California. After a couple months, the Zodiac Killer strikes again with his vicious attacks on these innocent victims. Darlene Ferrin was killed, and Mike Mageau was wounded in the Vallejo area. After the crime, the Zodiac Killer contacted the Vallejo Police Department, and he gives them the location of the crime. The notorious serial killer also claimed to be responsible for the deaths of the two couples in Vallejo, California. In late 1969, the Zodiac Killer sent letters to newspaper companies which contained the details of the murders. He later on threatened to continue killing if he wasn’t given publicity. He also would leave a cipher which was his identity, but it hasn’t been solved. As days went by, Donald and Bettye Harden were able to decode his message. His message stated:"I like killing people because it is so much fun. It is more fun than killing wild game in the forrest because
In Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave” and the film The Matrix, we are able to see connections between the two works as they comment on the definition of reality. As presented in “The Allegory of the Cave,” Plato juxtaposes the enlightened people (as depicted by those who have seen the sun and been out of the cave) and the ignorant people (as depicted by those who only know what is within the cave). Those who first venture out of the cave will “have pain in their eyes… (and) take refuge in the objects of vision which he can see” as they are unprepared for the sun’s brilliance (Plato 588). The sun symbolizes reality and knowledge while the shadows
Immediately after the overthrow of King Zahir Shah in 1973, Afghanistan began to experience a drastic increase of media restrictions under its next ruling powers. However, when the Taliban gained control in 1996, the Islamic State of Afghanistan began a period of regulation which can be considered the most restricted in the world. Censorship is the act of a government or powerful group filtering information, news, and media to fit approved topics and categories. Under censorship, the people now have to be cautious of what they write, say, or do because if it’s deemed "offensive" or “illegal”, they can be penalized. ("Definitions of Censorship") The Taliban, an Islamic fundamentalist group, proved to be no different. Whether it was news, music, or the Internet, the Taliban was and even today is not afraid to dominate.
The 19th-Century was a period in which the expression of sexuality and sexual compulsion was firmly repressed. Charles E. Rosenberg explores the typical behaviors of the sexes, and how they related to the expression, or repression, of sexuality in “Sexuality, Class and Role in 19th-Century America.” Medical and biological literature tended to adopt very sex-negative attitudes, condemning sexual desires and activity. This literature was often ambivalent and self-contradicting. Initially, people viewed sex as a normal human behavior: they believed sexual excess was bad, but thought it was natural and necessary after puberty because horniness left unsatisfied and untreated could cause disease. However, in the 1830s, the previous sex-neutral attitude was quickly replaced by a harsher, more negative view of sexuality. “Quacks,” or charlatans, tried to instill people with a crippling fear of sex by warning them of
Rubin, Gail. "Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality." American Feminist Thought at Century's End : A Reader. Ed. Linda S. Kauffman Cambridge, Ma : Blackwell, 1993. 3-64.
The aim of this investigation is to evaluate the sexual revolution and how it contributes to a change in the United States society in the 1960’s through the 1980’s or in in question form “To what extent did the sexual revolution affect united states society?” This will mainly focus on how the society treated and viewed the people that were a part of this revolution. It will basically analyze countercultures of homosexuality and women's rights to thing such as contraceptives and abortion. This revolution also increased the acceptance of sexual relationships outside of just the normal heterosexuality. Such as homosexuality and sexual relations with multiple partners. Contraceptives, or the pill, help women in this revolution be able to do as they please and pursue their dreams. These advantages are thing such as going to be more educated and with
It may not be a 1960s sexual revolution but Americans' attitudes toward sex have certainly taken a dramatic turn toward sexual irreverence. American culture has lost all sense of discretion. We have no boundaries or sense of anything being a private matter. After we cruised through the conservative 50’s; we chanted and swayed through the sexual revolution of the 60’s. But we didn’t stop there. Now we’re riding the fiber optic wave of immediate and impersonal self-gratification. American culture is getting more accepting of provocative messages and behavior with each passing decade. What caused the drastic shift in attitudes from the 1950s to the 1960s? Do we owe today’s epidemic of casual sex to any one thing?
In “The Allegory of the Cave,” Plato describes the cave as very dark with chained people inside and a wall where they can only see shadow illusions, which they believe is reality. Outside the cave, there is “light” and “truth.” One chained person is released into the “light,” which is uncomfortable at first, because of how bright the “light” or “truth” is however, once he adjusts, he realizes the outer world is the “truth” or reality and the cave is a shadow of reality. He pities the ones in the cave, still lost in the darkness yet, when he tries to make them see reality, their ignorance overpowers them and they kill the enlightened one out of fear and confusion. This is the kind of society, full of puppet-handlers, the narrator Sylvia in “The Lesson” dwells in and the author, Toni Cade Bambara, depicts Sylvia as being freed from the chains of ignorant society. Bambara’s released prisoner, Miss Moore, is the one to free Sylvia and the other chained prisoners and exposes them to the “light,” which is the unequal distribution of wealth and the “truth,” which is educating youth on economic inequality so the freed prisoners can learn to change their society’s shadow of reality.
In the movie The Matrix we find a character by the name of Neo and his struggle adapting to the truth...to reality. This story is closely similar to an ancient Greek text written by Plato called "The Allegory of the Cave." Now both stories are different but the ideas are basically the same. Both Stories have key points that can be analyzed and related to one another almost exactly. There is no doubt that The Matrix was based off Greek philosophy. The idea of freeing your mind or soul as even stated in "The Allegory of the Cave" is a well known idea connecting to Greek philosophy. The Matrix is more futuristic and scientific than "The Cave" but it's the same Idea. Neo is trapped in a false reality created by a computer program that was created by machines that took over the planet. Now the story of course has many themes such as Man vs. Machine, Good vs. Evil, and our favorite Reality vs. Illusion. Neo is unplugged from the matrix and learns the truth and becomes "the one" who is to save the humans from their machine oppressors. "The Cave" is similar in that it has humans trapped in a cave and chained up to only face one direction. The "puppeteers" then make shadows against the wall the humans face using the fire from the outside as a light source. One big difference is that "The Cave" is about two philosophers conversing about the cave as one explains what needs to happen and that the prisoners must free their souls to find truth. The Matrix is the actions of what the philosopher describes actually happening. The comparing of the two stories will show how things said in "The Cave" are the same as in The Matrix, of course with the exception that one is futuristic ...
Plato, a student of Socrates, in his book “The Republic” wrote an allegory known as “Plato's Cave”. In Plato's allegory humans are trapped within a dark cave where they can only catch glimpses of the world above through shadows on the wall.2 Plato is describing how the typical human is. They have little knowledge and what they think they know has very little basis in fact. He describes these people as prisoners, in his allegory, and they are only free when they gain knowledge of the world above the cave.