Plato’s Allegory of the Cave: Corona Version

By Shah Muhammad, Ghotki

Last year, my write up “Plato’s Allegory of the Cave” was published on this prestigious platform. It was directed towards relating this concept to prevailing intellectual decadence in our society. Later on, it dawned upon me that this concept is very much applicable and relevant to the ongoing Covid-19 situation and crippling lockdown. Let’s briefly grasp this allegory again and, subsequently, relate it to the corona scenario. 

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, also called Myth of the Cave, was put forth by ancient Greek philosopher Plato in his finest book “Republic.” It spells out a hypothetical scenario which illustrates how human minds are conditioned and manipulated, without them even knowing about it. In essence, it comprehensively elaborates the notion of intellectual slavery. 

It describes a cave in which some people are trapped with their hands and feet tied since their birth. Their heads are also tied in such a way that they keep looking straight at only one wall of the cave. Behind them is the opening/mouth of the cave. There is a fire outside the cave and some people, holding objects, are moving between fire and them in such a way that their shadows fall on the wall of the cave that the imprisoned people are looking at since their birth. 

Those bounded people have fully accepted the idea that these shadows are the only reality—the sole truth— because they have spent their lives just looking at those flickering shadows. They have never seen the real world that lies outside the cave. One day, one of them manages to free himself from his chains and runs away. 

He rushes outside the cave and is startled to see the real world and, hence, the real truth that lies outside the cave. He is suddenly gripped by a realization that now he is responsible to free his other fellows from the chains and convince them that they had been deceived all their life; that actual reality lies outside. When he goes back inside the cave to try to convince them about the reality, the prisoners ridicule him and refuse to believe him. They have become so used to the fake reality of the shadows that they vehemently reject the notion of actual reality, and refuse to go outside the cave. 

Now let’s build up an analogy and relate this magnificent allegory to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic situation. The shadows on the cave represent fake reality of the COVID-19 that has been churned out by media outlets, international organizations and state machineries. The prisoners of the cave represent majority of the world population who have just accepted and consumed this skewed reality, without even questioning and using their own independent thinking. It is almost the same as when world population had accepted the mainstream narratives, or mainstream lies to be precise, about 9/11, Iraq War and terrorism. 

The freed prisoner of the cave reflects an inquisitive and critical individual of today who says “wait…I won’t let media and official narrative shape my thinking.” He argues that COVID-19 is undoubtedly real, but it is not as deadly as depicted by the tele and smart screens. In fact, it is one of the least deadly viruses ever. He statistically substantiates his case that the survival rate is around 99.6 percent; there have been very low number of deaths so far. Why then, he vehemently questions, is media spreading fear and hysteria? Why is there even a need for crippling lockdown? Why decimate economies and education by using a least deadly virus as a pretext? Would chronic economic downturn not lead to increase in poverty and mass starvation? Wouldn’t health issues increase tenfold out of the rubble of socioeconomic decimation? He questions and questions, providing wings to his reasoning. In other words, he refuses to believe the world of shadows and leaps towards the actual truth.

Whenever he makes his case before majority of the people trapped in the COVID-cave, he is laughed-at and branded as a conspiracy theorist. Just as those prisoners of the cave ridiculed at the freed prisoner who was striving hard to liberate them from the fake reality of shadows. People often respond by giving the same old argument: are they all stupid? Are you the only sane person around here? Then let us enlighten those fellows that the prisoners of the cave must have given the same argument: are we all stupid? Are you the only wise one? Similarly, the entire mainstream media was feeding the world population the narrative of lies during 9/11 and Iraq War. Those glued to TV screens at those times must have said the same argument to a critical person: is the whole media lying? Are you the only wise one around here? However, ultimately it turns out that the whole media was lying and ruthlessly acting as an engine of mass manipulation. 

Currently, the masses have literally been pushed into Plato’s allegorical cave. It is very hard to unshackle them because media and official narrative have cast a spell on their minds…again. Using the same old trick, the international power bearers are pushing through their own agenda by effectively using the screens as a facade. Let it be known that in these times of mass manipulation, truth cannot be found on television screens; it is right there in the deepest dungeons, waiting for human reason and intellect to discover it!