Know Way
A short aside: A few weeks back, I wrote "The Best and the Brightest?" If you found it interesting, you might want to read this article: www.yahoo.com/politics/are-we-getting-the-leaders-1397064998158390.html and read about a very under the radar speech.
See what you think.
Several weeks ago, I began putting my notes together for a study of the New Testament book (or epistle, which is more correct) of Hebrews. As I was looking over those notes, I found my attention turning to one of my favorite passages from Plato - the allegory of the cave. Found in Plato's Republic, it is a fantastic observation on the nature of truth and what the consequences of truth can be.
Briefly, the allegory is that people are trapped in a cave, in the dark, with only shadows projected on a wall in front of them. Those shadows are the illusion of reality that we accept. There are, however, those who manage to break free and leave the cave to find the 'real' world beyond. Once they have been enlightened, they then often opt to return to the cave and try to set others free. Some captives, however, will turn on these who reveal the truth because they are too entrenched in their perception of reality to willingly choose to set it aside. The truth then becomes something of a liability to those who know it as well as a threat to those who recognize its possibility and power.
It might also sound like the plot of the Matrix - which it should, by the way. Hebrews is built around the philosophical concepts of Plato and echoes this allegory as well (which means that Hebrews and the Matrix have a lot in common).
When Jesus is being interrogated by Pilate in the Gospel of John, Pilate asks a phenomenal and fundamental question: What is truth?
I won't try to answer that question, but I find it interesting that a narrative from centuries ago has such an amazing statement contained in it. Truth, it would seem to Pilate, may very well be a fluid thing and to try and pinpoint absolute truth is a fools errand. Theology itself becomes quite dangerous when it becomes creed or worse absolute. When there is no room for discussion, there is usually either the presence of absolute truth or utter captivity.
This brings me to knowledge. Pilate's question bespeaks of an underlying question: how do we know truth to be truth? Because it is a commonly accepted truth? Because it has the majority backing it? Are these really the criteria by which we accept truth? Plato might argue that those who accept something as truth because the masses accept it are those still chained in the cave of shadows. This isn't to say that truth would not be accepted by the masses if it were true. To accept something because it is true is a positive. To accept something as true because others believe it to be is a negative.
The person who find their way out of the cave might be, for lack of a better term, a gnostic. Gnostic being one who possesses knowledge, but not necessarily truth. They are enlightened (which might be a better word than gnostic) to the fact that what they know doesn't prove anything other than the fact that they don't know it all and what they do know they might not know as confidently as they hoped.
The one who leaves the cave knows that the world constructed by the average cave denizen is a sham or a show - a projection of reality that becomes reality because it is perceived as reality. The trouble is that this shadow world of projected reality needs the obedience of the masses to keep it functioning. You have to believe the truth of the falsehood in order for it to maintain its power and control. And there would be those who would seek to prevent anyone from breaking free of its power (or illusion of power) for fear that when the truth is revealed, the jig is up and the illusion broken.
To wake up from the dream of reality sounds like a positive, but it may not be. That's because the knowledge that the truth is not what we thought is a frightening thing. Like in the overlooked action thriller of the late 80's They Live, once one is aware of the fabrication, that fabrication becomes a threat. Not only is it a threat, being aware of it alienates the individual from the rest of the people who are unaware of the truth around them. Like Captain Picard trying to rouse Captain Kirk out of the illusory paradise in Star Trek: Generations, to be aware of the fiction puts you at odds with those for whom the illusion is a good one or for whom the prospect of leaving the illusion is too frightening or possibly to sad.
Thinking for ourselves brings alienation to a hive or mob mentality. As such, those who know have to be extremely careful in what they reveal to those still in the cave because, as Plato wrote, those in the cave might rise up and kill the messenger who tells them that not only are the people in a cave, but that there is life and light outside of that cave. It sounds like good news, but the people may not comprehend it as such and then to turn off the ideas and get back to the illusion the messenger of discord has to die.
Hence the reluctance to speak the truth which is not absolute but far more unsettling than a set of preordained and popularly accepted answers. To come to this realization is to also come to understand that those for whom the illusion holds no power, they have become aliens. Strangers in a strange land.
The goal then of knowledge is not to change the world because that would almost inevitably lead to a mere changing of the guard where we, as the Who sang, "meet the new boss, just the same as the old boss." The goal is to spread the word and to assure others as they awake that they are not alone. That there is a higher truth. But to proclaim such a knowledge is, as Jesus said, to cast one's pearls before swine and risk being trodden underfoot. Yet, staying with the image of swine, to know the truth which, according to the New Testament, sets us free, we have to be more like the Prodigal who comes to himself in the midst of the swine and realizes that he doesn't belong there any more.
See what you think.
Several weeks ago, I began putting my notes together for a study of the New Testament book (or epistle, which is more correct) of Hebrews. As I was looking over those notes, I found my attention turning to one of my favorite passages from Plato - the allegory of the cave. Found in Plato's Republic, it is a fantastic observation on the nature of truth and what the consequences of truth can be.
Briefly, the allegory is that people are trapped in a cave, in the dark, with only shadows projected on a wall in front of them. Those shadows are the illusion of reality that we accept. There are, however, those who manage to break free and leave the cave to find the 'real' world beyond. Once they have been enlightened, they then often opt to return to the cave and try to set others free. Some captives, however, will turn on these who reveal the truth because they are too entrenched in their perception of reality to willingly choose to set it aside. The truth then becomes something of a liability to those who know it as well as a threat to those who recognize its possibility and power.
It might also sound like the plot of the Matrix - which it should, by the way. Hebrews is built around the philosophical concepts of Plato and echoes this allegory as well (which means that Hebrews and the Matrix have a lot in common).
When Jesus is being interrogated by Pilate in the Gospel of John, Pilate asks a phenomenal and fundamental question: What is truth?
I won't try to answer that question, but I find it interesting that a narrative from centuries ago has such an amazing statement contained in it. Truth, it would seem to Pilate, may very well be a fluid thing and to try and pinpoint absolute truth is a fools errand. Theology itself becomes quite dangerous when it becomes creed or worse absolute. When there is no room for discussion, there is usually either the presence of absolute truth or utter captivity.
This brings me to knowledge. Pilate's question bespeaks of an underlying question: how do we know truth to be truth? Because it is a commonly accepted truth? Because it has the majority backing it? Are these really the criteria by which we accept truth? Plato might argue that those who accept something as truth because the masses accept it are those still chained in the cave of shadows. This isn't to say that truth would not be accepted by the masses if it were true. To accept something because it is true is a positive. To accept something as true because others believe it to be is a negative.
The person who find their way out of the cave might be, for lack of a better term, a gnostic. Gnostic being one who possesses knowledge, but not necessarily truth. They are enlightened (which might be a better word than gnostic) to the fact that what they know doesn't prove anything other than the fact that they don't know it all and what they do know they might not know as confidently as they hoped.
The one who leaves the cave knows that the world constructed by the average cave denizen is a sham or a show - a projection of reality that becomes reality because it is perceived as reality. The trouble is that this shadow world of projected reality needs the obedience of the masses to keep it functioning. You have to believe the truth of the falsehood in order for it to maintain its power and control. And there would be those who would seek to prevent anyone from breaking free of its power (or illusion of power) for fear that when the truth is revealed, the jig is up and the illusion broken.
To wake up from the dream of reality sounds like a positive, but it may not be. That's because the knowledge that the truth is not what we thought is a frightening thing. Like in the overlooked action thriller of the late 80's They Live, once one is aware of the fabrication, that fabrication becomes a threat. Not only is it a threat, being aware of it alienates the individual from the rest of the people who are unaware of the truth around them. Like Captain Picard trying to rouse Captain Kirk out of the illusory paradise in Star Trek: Generations, to be aware of the fiction puts you at odds with those for whom the illusion is a good one or for whom the prospect of leaving the illusion is too frightening or possibly to sad.
Thinking for ourselves brings alienation to a hive or mob mentality. As such, those who know have to be extremely careful in what they reveal to those still in the cave because, as Plato wrote, those in the cave might rise up and kill the messenger who tells them that not only are the people in a cave, but that there is life and light outside of that cave. It sounds like good news, but the people may not comprehend it as such and then to turn off the ideas and get back to the illusion the messenger of discord has to die.
Hence the reluctance to speak the truth which is not absolute but far more unsettling than a set of preordained and popularly accepted answers. To come to this realization is to also come to understand that those for whom the illusion holds no power, they have become aliens. Strangers in a strange land.
The goal then of knowledge is not to change the world because that would almost inevitably lead to a mere changing of the guard where we, as the Who sang, "meet the new boss, just the same as the old boss." The goal is to spread the word and to assure others as they awake that they are not alone. That there is a higher truth. But to proclaim such a knowledge is, as Jesus said, to cast one's pearls before swine and risk being trodden underfoot. Yet, staying with the image of swine, to know the truth which, according to the New Testament, sets us free, we have to be more like the Prodigal who comes to himself in the midst of the swine and realizes that he doesn't belong there any more.
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