Chained since birth (like the man born blind in John 9). Plato's allegory is of prisoners chained since birth deep inside a cave. They face a blank wall and can only see shadows cast on it by people, animals and objects (illuminated by a fire they can't see). For these prisoners, the shadows are reality, their only reality; it's all they've ever known, as they have never seen the light.
Release. One day, one person in the cave is released; he encounters the world outside the cave. The brightness is blinding and painful at first. But gradually and with painful difficulty he becomes acquainted with the light, that is, the truth.
Realization. Over time, he begins to realize that the shadows that he thought were real until now are not real and are just dark reflections of the truth.
Return. Realizing the truth, he returns to the cave and explains to the others that the shadows are fake and the real truth is outside. His eyes, now accustomed to sunlight, struggle in the dark; he appears clumsy or blind. The other prisoners ridicule him, think he's gone mad or been harmed by the outside. The people, who have never seen the outside, cannot comprehend what is being said and they protest angrily.
Still chained. People often prefer the familiar prison to painful freedom. Comfort, identity, community, and certainty are tied to the "chains" and shadows. That's why those who tell the truth are suppressed and opposed in society.
Truth is painful. It is disturbing to see the truth in the light and to hear the truth. That's why the mind chooses darkness and bondage. Ignorance is bliss. It takes courage to face the truth and be free. This metaphor is still valid in today's world and order.
Stuck in darkness and blindness. Plato exemplifies the inability of the enlightened--who had begun to understand something in the cave allegory/analogy--to enlighten those in the dark, no matter how elite, brilliant and educated they may be.
Re "ignorance is bliss"
ReplyDeleteIgnorance of lies and deceptions (=most mainstream news and establishment decrees) is bliss because exposing yourself to that is self-propagandization.
Ignorance of truths is not, or only temporarily or rarely, bliss because it is ultimately self-defeating .... https://johnmichaeldemarco.com/15-reasons-why-ignorance-is-not-bliss
"Ignorance is not protection from consequences. When you know better, you do better—but when you do not know, the consequences still arrive, often compounded. Proactivity matters. Asking questions matters. Research matters. Every choice we make carries outcomes, and those outcomes do not pause simply because we failed to understand them." --- https://archive.is/PLqhb
The FALSE mantra of “ignorance is bliss”, promoted in the latter sense, is a product of a fake sick culture that has indoctrinated its “dumbed down” (therefore TRULY ignorant, therefore easy to control) people with many such manipulative slogans. Eg...
““We’re all in this together” is a tribal maxim. Even there, it’s a con, because the tribal leaders use it to enforce loyalty and submission. ... The unity of compliance.” --- Jon Rappoport, Investigative Journalist
You can find the proof that ignorance is hardly ever bliss (and if so only superficial temporary fake bliss), and how you get to buy into this lie (and other self-defeating lies), in the article “The 2 Married Pink Elephants In The Historical Room –The Holocaustal Covid-19 Coronavirus Madness: A Sociological Perspective & Historical Assessment Of The Covid “Phenomenon”” ... https://www.rolf-hefti.com/covid-19-coronavirus.html
"Separate what you know from what you THINK you know." --- Unknown
“If ignorance is bliss, why aren't there more happy people?” --- John Mitchinson
"If we have learned anything in the past six years, it is that vaccinologists, doctors, and the government in general do not have good intentions and never did. The clear intention of everyone concerned was and is to make as much dirty money as possible, letting any amount of collateral damage slide, including a genocide and mass poisoning [with Covid-19 jabs]. The fact [is] that Big Pharma just murdered millions of people, with the full support of government, media, and “science”. With Covid, everyone is part of the fraud, many of them paid off, so no one has any reason to expose it, and big reasons to bury it. Don't believe anything these people tell you, ABOUT ANYTHING. It isn't time for a civil war against your neighbors, it is time for a revolution against these hoaxers and thieves." --- Miles Mathis, American author, in 2025