Blog 1 revised

                Plato’s text “allegory of the cave”, sums up that people that were prisoners in the cave, who lived there all there life has no idea about the reality of the world.  Those prisoners saw shadowy figures on the wall whenever other people walked in front of a light, but these prisoners weren’t allowed to look at what it was, because there were chains on their neck attached to their feet.   Plato’s metaphor is that these people had to choose to be scorn by others and live with the truth, or to be ignorant from the truth and live comfortably with an illusion, which played a role in Plato’s text “allegory of the cave”.  Being ignorant from the truth and live comfortably will best suit my life style.

                From my perspective, being rejected by others and not having anyone there for you can be very uncomfortable. Throughout my high school year, I had a rough time making friends because it was my first year in that school.  So in order for me to make friends at that time, I would lie about my childhood and my past so that people can be interested in me.  So at that time I’ve chose to live in a comfortable environment but be ignorant with the truth because, it made me make friends during my freshman year. I still chose to live comfortably and hide from the truth because I wouldn’t like to live in society where everyone rejects me.    But celebrities play a different role with ignorance of the truth and living in an illusion.  People care about what celebrities do and say, if one tells the truth about what their perspective is about others, in a matter of minute people will start to judge them and criticize them about their truth.  Celebrities maintain their status by not being ignorant of their truth to the society. For instance, Lady GaGa is a great example that didn’t maintained her status in the public view and has been scorn by tons of fans.

                Lady GaGa is one of the iconic views of the fashion industry.  She is best known of her crazy outfits and her music.  People loved her because of her style in music and how she represented herself.  Before her crazy act in the public arena, she signed a deal with MAC with Cyndi lauper which they will help raise funds to men, women and children’s who are suffering with AIDS and HIV all around the world.  So in my point of view, I thought she was a caring person who cared enough to help sick people around the world, and this helped her music industry bloom.  After she showed the people how caring she was, she didn’t maintain her status when she showed up at the New York Mets game on June 2010.  When she walked into the New York Mets arena, she walked into the VIP room where another celebrity name Seinfeld was in; she came in very rudely and showed her middle finger to her fans wearing the New York Yankees jersey.  After that incident, her fans scorned her and a lot of people are starting to reject her.  The New York Mets team players stated that they won’t allow her to come back to the stadium anymore and her fans from the stadium booed her. 

                To live comfortably and live with the ignorant of the truth was my decision when I was making friends during my high school years.  But Lady GaGa was living in an illusion just so she can maintain her status, but now is living from the truth and being rejected by some society and being hated by some of her fans.

The Allegory of the Cave

Plato shows an example from the Allegory of the Cave that people lived in a cave in an illusion, and some people rather live by telling the truth and be rejected by family and friends.  From Plato perspective, to live in an illusion is when someone hides from the truth but rather live in an environment where no one knows about you.  In my perspective, an illusion is having an invention with your beliefs.   Charles Darwin is a great example of an illusion, who he had an illusion about “theory of evolution”, and natural selection.

Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, England on February 12, 1809.  Throughout his childhood, his mother died at a very young age.  During his childhood, he was very interested in assembling some sorts of species.  During his college years, he studied in pharmacology which is the study of medicine.  His interest grew towards the earth’s history after he was introduced by a geologist Robert Jameson.  Knowing that his father was disappointed that his interest was towards the earth’s history, his father put him into another college where he can study something else besides the earth.  Without his father’s knowledge, Darwin studied about species and the natural world.  He would study the plants and animals and collect data about their history.  Darwin came upon a fossil in South America where he found a fossil that was similar to other living things but not quite the same.  This is how his belief in the natural selection and the theory of evolution began.

Charles Darwin believed that the theories of evolution exist through natural selection.  He also implied that all living things were all from a common ancestor and every living thing are related to one another.  All creatures or living things can be different from one another but from the beginning we started out from one living thing.   Natural selection is when living things change to survive in different types of environment, and this is due from the environment we adapt to.  Our ancestor and our parents lived through all types of adaptation, so the offspring will adapt to the environment they’ve been through so we can be accustomed to our habitat.  Since we are living in an environment full of polluted air that contains oxygen, methane, helium, hydrogen, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, our offspring will be already adapted to the environment we are living in because of natural selection. 

To live in an illusion where everyone knows the truth and might exclude you from their habitat, Charles Darwin was an example of who had an illusion about the evolution and natural selection.  After his father finding out about his interest and knowledge about the truth of his interest in earth’s history, he denied his interest and sent him to another college to study something else. 

http://www.darwins-theory-of-evolution.com/
http://www.crystalinks.com/darwin.html 

The Cave and I

From my experience with the different types of cultures, I’ve noticed that certain people care a lot about what people think of them.  I use to wonder why they cared so much about what others perceived of them, until I experienced it myself and didn’t care what other thought of me.  From the “excerpt from the republic” by Plato, people had their individual aspect on how to observe others, either to be ignorant of the truth and live comfortably or to live in the society of truth and to be rejected by peers and family.  My determination would be to live in a society of truth and be scorned by everyone.

                While growing up with different types of people with different type of cultures, I’ve learned that other people cared about what others thought of them because they didn’t want to have a bad reputation on themselves.  Growing up with friends that cared about what societies might think of them, made me realize that I rather be rejected from my truth than to constantly lie and live in an illusion.  Socrates stated that “is the power upon which he who would act rationally, either in public or private life must have his eye fixed.” In the opinion this statement meant that people who discriminate others in society should stop and realize what he can do to others in a negative way.

                Many times I’ve discovered some of my friends and cousins passing judgment about me or my family but never confronted them with the truth.   I felt that it would be disrespectful to talk back to elders and also I didn’t have to guts to confront my friends.  I thought about the consequence of losing my friends and them talking more negative things about me to others, also my cousins scorning me out of their family.  But in my belief I didn’t care about what others might perceive of me so I confronted my ex-friends about the truth, and confronted my cousin about the truth about me and my family. 

                Living in a cave in a society knowing my truth and being scorn by others will be my decision.  My conclusion to the outcome of confronting them was that I’ve realized who were my true friends and my cousins alienating me from their family.