Reality Check

A few weeks ago we discussed Plato's "Republic" and his Allegory of the Cave. In Plato's metaphor, he described individuals who were imprisoned in a remote cave for their whole lives. Since birth, these people had not seen anything other than the wall that they were chained in front of; they never saw the light of day...literally. The only things the prisoners ever saw were the shadows of objects and animals cast on the cave wall, as they (the animals) walked past them. Eventually, a prisoner was released into the outside world. Upon reaching the outside world, the prisoner was astounded, and returned to the cave to tell the other prisoners the incredible things he had seen. Yet, the prisoners only saw the man's shadow on the wall; they had no idea who he was or what he was saying. Their whole lives, the prisoners only knew the darkness, the wall, and the shadows. To them, this was reality, not the outside world.

Plato's Allegory of the Cave
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After we learned about the Allegory of the Cave, the first thing that came to my mind was George Orwell's novel 1984 (if you actually have time, then click that to read this classic). In the book, the people of Oceania are all essentially under control of a tyrannical and totalitarian government, AKA "Big Brother." Actually, this famous Apple commercial depicts 1984 quite well:

 Now why did Plato's cave remind me of Big Brother? Well, in the book, the citizens of Oceania don't question their place in society or why things had to be a certain way. They simply accepted the norm, as this was their reality; this is all they had known their whole lives, just like the prisoners in the Cave. 

So what am I getting at? Am I saying that we need to all become that woman in the commercial and revolt against our Big Brother government? Not at all. Personally, this topic made me think about what reality truly is. How do we know what reality actually is? It's incredibly subjective and varies from person to person. How do we know that all of us aren't in another dimension right now? How do I know that I'm not just dreaming as I write this?

Or maybe a dream within a dream, within a dream, within a dream...?
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Sorry Leo. Inception is really cool and all, but I'll take a more realistic--pun intended--approach to this concept. Obviously I'm not dreaming, but seriously, what is reality? Is it getting up every single morning and going to work, doing the same things, and just living under the constraints society has set for us? I believe that reality is a personal thing, and cannot be defined under the terms Big Brother outlines for us. As individuals, we must embark on our own journeys to discover  for ourselves what it means 'to be alive.' THAT is reality: understanding what makes someone happy. That being said, most people are afraid to face reality. Much like the prisoners of the cave, they don't want to venture far from what they have known and practiced for so long. Still, there are those who revoke society in order to find their personal reality. For example, check out Stamatis Moraitis and the people of Ikaria. After living in the US for years, Stamatis decided to forgo modernity (which was reality to him for his whole life), and return to his homeland of Ikaria. Upon doing this, Stamatis not only found profound happiness, but understood that his original perception of reality was wrong, for him. He learned that he valued traditions and simplicity more than anything else, and thus, this was his reality.

Now, I'm sure you're sick of the amount of times I've actually written the word 'reality,' but I leave you with this: the concept of reality is incredibly subjective, and who are we to tell others what "should be the norm." I believe that every person needs to search for their own reality, whether that be through exploring foreign countries, starting a whole knew career, or even sailing the world in a bathtub. Otherwise, we will never escape the Cave that is society today.