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.