What is an Allegory?
The word ‘allegory’ comes from the Latin ‘allegoria,’ meaning speaking to imply something else. Similar to metaphors, they illustrate an idea by making a comparison to something else in order to make an often much greater point. This technique is used as a means to separate the storyteller (or writer) from an idea that may be a polarizing topic to discuss directly.
The Allegory of The Cave is definitively one of the first “red pills” in my opinion to have ever been dropped on humanity. It was written in Book VII of ‘Plato’s The Republic’ and encourages the pupil to distinguish illusion from reality and perhaps also to “not shoot the messenger.” It examines the philosophical thought of truth, and how some with different experiences or backgrounds may perceive it and also how some may too respond when their notion of truth is challenged.
In Plato’s Story
He tells it as a dialogue between his brother Glaucon and Socrates. As presented by Plato, Socrates’s allegory of the cave imagines a group of people chained together inside an underground cave as prisoners who are stuck looking at a wall in which shadows are cast upon.
I won’t say anymore because I think it would be a great treat for you to watch this throwback video in which Orson Welles narrates the allegory for your enrichment and entertainment of course!
Enjoy!
by Plato
Narrated by Orson Welles
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Red Pills Only 