As you all know, I'm a big fan of journals, diaries, or anything as such. Stumbling upon old pieces of writing has to be one of the most eye opening moments in life. I find it hard to believe that your conscience will allow you to lie to yourself in writing. From my experiences it seems like your true genius comes out when you write about life and the things going on around you. I would like to take this time out to apologize to all of my english teachers who made me write journals every morning in class and i gave them a dirty look. Please forgive me because I had no idea the power of what you spoke of. Now I see completely, and i plan to continue writing journals as often as i can. Here is a brief journal i wrote back in 2008 about Plato. I hope you like it. And please pick up a pen/pencil and write about the first thing that comes to mind. Maybe one day when you stumble upon it, it will spark a life changing moment. At the end is a song by J.cole called "see world" I added it because it's mirrors the idea of writing what you see and also it's DOPE!
This is a conversation between Glaucon, a student, and Socrates, his teacher, and then Plato writes an allegory of this conversation. Plato asks us to imagine human beings who are prisoners in a cave, chained and forced to face one direction. Behind the prisoners, there is a fire that casts shadows upon the wall the prisoners are facing. Since birth, all they have watched are shadows of statues and animals cast upon that wall. They also hear conversations of those who transport these statues. To the prisoners, the truth is literally nothing else except the shadows of the images they see. Plato asks us to consider what will follow when one prisoner is released from his chains, and cured of his ignorance. At first he will fight the truth, but inevitably he will start to see more than shadows. Getting accustomed to the real world , will he care about being the leader inside the cave or living as just another person in the real world? Plato asks us to consider the man going back to into the cave in his new state; wouldn't his eyes leaving the sunlight be covered in darkness? When he recovers and resumes to living with his mates, wouldn't he invite ridicule towards them because of their ignorance? And if he tried to lead them towards enlightenment, wouldn't they kill him?
This allegory has to be one of the best things I have ever read in my lifetime. It has brought total enlightenment to my eyes. Though it is tough to understand, with due reasoning I am really amazed on how much truth Plato is speaking about reality, change, and, ignorance. Whenever my eyes are opened to something new, something that has never been part of my life; like foreign foods or dating outside your race, my first reaction is to reject it because I have never tried it before. In a sense I am blinded by the shadows of my comfort level. Now when I try it and fall in love with it, the next step is to introduce it to my friends or tell them about it. If I tell my friends, or parents that I am going to marry outside my race, it will be looked upon as an abomination. But with my new state of mind I see nothing wrong with such things again, because I am not blinded by the darkness of my comfort level.
I've always been a fan of Plato and other ancient philosophers. What you pointed out is a huge sub-category of philosophy. Once knowledge is acquired, it's only natural as humans we want to share it. Now this is where religion comes in; religious leaders (for lack of better words) such as Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, claimed to know the truth and that is where the controversy began. This simple "truth" you wrote about isn't so simple, so be wary who you share it with. I've learned the hard way, but I refuse to continue to bathe in ignorance.
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