blog 8

The allegory of the cave is the foundation for all the works we have seen or read this semester. It involves the search for the truth and how one must question what they know because ones reality might just only just be ones perceived reality. All the movies show the main character going against what society considers being the norm. Attica utopian society believes genetically engineered people are superior and can’t be matched by a non-genetically engineered person, the matrix deals with people living in a simulated reality and a band of rebels trying to free mankind from it, in minority report we have the system of prescribe that no one really knows how it really works but society accepts it. While all these movies have different plots they all have the search for truth in common.

The texts further enhance our understanding of the films, Oedipus just like the movies involves a characters path to the truth, the text free will and determinism in the world of minority report enhances our understanding of the movie so that we can decide whether the truth shown to us is a truth we accept or one we question. All in all the works we have seen or read this semester have helped me understand a lot more about finding out the truth and ways one can go about find the truth. On top of showing me how and why I should search for the truth these works have also showed me that not every truth we find is not one we always want but is one we have to accept.

The Cave-finding the truth

Oedipus-man’s search for truth led to a horrible discovery

Man on the moon-genetic engineering

Free will/minority report-how much control do we have

Matrix-is this real

blog 6

How much control do we have in our lives, some people may say we have one outcome and those would be hard determinists, while people who believe we have choices will be more associated with free will. The movie Minority report and the story of Oedipus both show how both these views can shape how a person lives their life. In the world of Minority Report there are ads that scan your eyes and are able to tailor their message to you personally.These Ads bombard you from every angle,If you weren't interested in spending money and you’d find yourself working really hard to resist temptation when it is being shoved in their face.There are those who resist then there are those who give in. People have the will and power to control their wants. It’s difficult if you’re being swarmed with a thousand ads and your penalty would be spending over budget. Then again, your wants are being injected in your head. It is not what you really want, it’s what they want you to want. I believe this is when free will comes at hand. You wont be deciding whether or not the ads are there or how they communicate to you but if you are going to let them tempt you into buying the product.In Oedipus the King, Oedipus wasn’t given free will. His destiny was manipulated by oracles who prophecy told Oedipus he would kill his father and marry his mother. When told of this he left in order to stop him from killing his adopted father; killing his biological father. Oedipus wasn't granted the will from the beginning since he was given away. Had his father not decided to sent him to get “killed” he would’ve been able to not fulfill his destiny. In the article “Free Will and Determinism in the World of Minority Report” its stated that “even though the robot controls its own actions, it has only one possibility to open it at any given time.” People control their actions but if others weren’t to extend the possibilities of doing what you want to then free will wouldn’t be as difficult to explain. Everyday we are given the chance to take actions on our belts. However, the environment that surround us creates these restrictions that limit our free will. It’s a form of temptation to do what’s not supposed to be done to later on be punished for as a consequence. We do have free will, but others also have free will upon us.

Blog 4: Ignorance, Bliss, and Knowledge in Oedipus the King and The Matrix

Knowledge, Ignorance, and Bliss play a major role in both The Matrix and in Oedipus. These concepts hold true throughout both works and are very much intertwined with each other. At the core of these stories the protagonists are at first ignorant to the truth and are living a good life but as their quest for the truth (knowledge) nears its end they come to the realization that their ignorance has made them happy and that the truth they have set forth to look even though it gives them knowledge they wanted, it destroyed their old views.

In the Matrix, Neo is living in a simulated reality that gives him all the comforts of a modern society. Neo wanting to know if it was real gets offered a choice by Morpheus of 2 pills one to gain knowledge and one to go back to what he was before and live in ignorant bliss. Just like in Oedipus, when Oedipus is on the hunt to rid his city of a plague by finding the men responsible for the murder of the king prior to him. In order to find this Oedipus calls upon an old blind prophet named Tiresias who knows the answer to Oedipus question but refuses to tell him about it as stated in line 380 “Let me go home. You must bear your burden to the very end, and I will carry mine, if you’ll agree with me”. This leads Oedipus to get mad and in doing so enrages the prophet into telling him the truth. After the prophet says “Then I would ask you to stand by the very words which you yourself proclaimed and from now on not speak to me or these men. For the accursed polluter of this land is you.”(line 418), this just like Neo shows Oedipus a truth he was not expecting but unlike Neo, Oedipus is able to just brush off as a ploy to take him off his throne and go back to his bliss or so he thinks.

As opposed to the Matrix where once Neo has seen the truth he accepts it and moves on to fulfill his destiny as the "one”, Oedipus realizes the old man was telling the truth and after realizing his truth cannot face it and decides to take a dagger to his eyes and blind himself in order to not see the truth .

Blog # 3 The Matrix: Utopia, Dystopia, and Realities

The Matrix is a very good example of the old saying that ignorance is bliss because while the real world is in diary due to a nucular war the simulated reality people are living in is a very normal happy life, as apposed to Plato’s The Cave which leads one to believe that once you find out what reality is it will open your eyes and show the truth and better your life. In today's world when most people search for answers to their question the end result of their searching leads them to a truth that they weren’t prepared for or weren’t expecting. Once you have learned the truth it cannot be unlearned so you will never be able to go back to not knowing and living as you used to.

In our worlds history there has been many instances where people’s search for the truth has ended up destroying peoples perceptions of their everyday life. For example many people believe our government is set up to help and protect us, well many were shocked to find out that 50’s and 60’s the CIA started a project called MKULTRA. This project was a series of experiments done on unwilling US citizens in the realm of altering brain functions by using drugs, chemicals, and hypnosis. When this project was discovered the people who believed it the CIA’s image of helping the people from others was tarnished. These people were now questioning everything the CIA had done and if the reasons they had been told had been true, they could no longer trust in their own government. In turn the people who were ignorant to the situation had no problem living their life because they hadn’t stepped out to find the truth.

Now some people may just call my last example too full of conspiracy filled, so another example used to demonstrate the matrix’s ignorance is bliss would be a teen finding out they are adopted. This scenario is best explained like this, a child in his mid teens has his whole life loved his parents because that’s who they are his parents. One day while looking through some old papers he finds adoption papers with his name and his information, from that day on the kids life will never be the same. The life the child has lived in his eyes had been a lie because the people who he considered his family aren’t really his family, questions start to arise like why was I put up for adoption, where are my real parents, why didn’t my adopted parents ever tell me. The child's adopted parents will explain and try to easy his conscious and while it may calm him down he will forever know that somewhere his real parents are in the same world as him and that may make it hard to view his adopted parents the same way he did before because they didn’t tell him.

Many people say they can handle the truth but once they do find it and they want to go back to their old lives of not knowing its hard to do so,and if you try to enlighten others who are not prepared to handle the truth you will be ridiculed by the masses. So if you are ever offered the choice between a red or a blue pill make sure your prepared to accept the consequences of knowing the truth.

Blog 2: The Allegory of The Cave through History (Kim Jong-il)

The supporters of Kim Jong-Il (supreme leader of North Korea) are a good example of people living in a "cave". The illusion that these supporters live in is hard for us as outsiders to believe because of how ridiculous they are but to the supporters this is all they have ever known and will most likely will know. The people who support Kim Jong-Il believe that their leader has supernatural powers like that his mood directly affects the weather. His birth is also something straight out of a movie in the sense that once came out of his mothers womb a bright star light up the sky, the seasons changed and rainbows covered the sky. They also believe that many of worlds inventions were due to his brilliance like hamburgers. Now the reason these people belive all this is due to the fact that the government controls all form of media outlets so all the news people get in North Korea is editied to make their country and leaders seem to be at the forefront and top of the world and when people speak out when they find out what the truth is the government is quick to silence and call them not right in the mind and poisoning the rest of the country. With that the supporters don't question the ways, so until the higher powers of North Korea change the citizens will still be in the cave.

The Cave (summary)

   In  The Allegory of the Cave Plato tells us to question the world around us or risk living in the "dark", he describe prisoners who were chained in a cave and could not turn their head. The only thing they can see is  a wall inside the cave. Behind the prisoners was a fire. There is a bridge in between the fire and the prisoners, on this bridge many men pass by holding many diffrent statues of animals and other objects. The chained men can only see the shadows of these shapes passing by. As time passes the men  start to name each of the shadows. One of the prisoners is suddenly released from the cave and is allowed to leave. Once outside he will have trouble getting his eyes accoustoumed to the light from the sun. At first the prisoner refuses to believe what he sees to be true and is still confident that the shadows are truly reality, after some time outside of the cave the prisoner learns that the world outside of the cave is the real one. He is sent back to the cave but has trouble seeing due to his eyes being accustomed to the sun outside, once his eyes have gotten used to the darkness he is able to tell the other prisoners what he has seen outside and how what they see is not reality. The other prisoners consider him to have gone crazy and that it would be better to never go out of the cave.

Blog 1

As most kids who have grown up in a religious household will tell you, church is not an option given to you; you’re just taken to it every Sunday regardless of what you think about it. As a child I believed all the aspects of the church until I got older and was able to go on my own and actually look at how many other regions across time have existed with similar beliefs and stories.

When I was younger and my parents took me to church I would be taken to the basement of the church for Sunday school. During these sessions I would be taught the story of Jesus and his followers, I would be amazed and fully immersed in their teachings. I would never question the word of the lord so I followed the rules set forth by the church, pray before eating, only believe in one god and etc. I knew that if I followed these rules I would be accepted into heaven and if I didn’t I would be sent to internal damnation. This went on up until I was 17 and I started reading the bible not as a book of stories but as a book people used to run their life’s an instruction manual of sorts.

Once I actually was able to read the bible on my own and understand it a lot of things I found to be true suddenly were very hard to prove, like if god loves all his children why do homosexuals not count under his “love”. This bugged me to the point where I went out and read up on other religions and was astonished at how many different religions are out there. After reading through books and books of other religions I came to the conclusion that there is no one right religion and that I could no longer follow any because every one of them had its flaws and quirks that made u think this can’t be right. I decided against atheism because there is no way to prove there is no god, so I just don’t use the bible as a guide to my life any more just a good book with lots of good short stories in it.

After going through that realization I started thinking what other aspects of my life am I just stuck inside of a “cave”, the first thing that came to mind was the government. Even true to this day everyone is told the government is for the people by the people and up until recently I believed it. I can’t say I don’t still believe it but I’m starting to have my doubts but until I can get more information in going to still be stuck in that cave but I’ll be trying to find a way out.