In reading Plato’s Cave and trying to write this blog I have searched my mind in order to figure out some time in my life that the allegory has happened. In all honesty I cannot say that I have ever truly reached some enlightened truth, not one that has made sense at this point in my life. The closest I can think of is my decision to continue my education along with my future career. Even now as I put these words on paper I cannot say that I am completely out the cave, but I do see some light that is greater then five years ago, but still not enough to let my mind wonder about the things around me.
I grew up in San Francisco in an area called Hunter’s Point, not the best of places I will admit. On the other hand nor was I the best of residents, not innately bad, but not a shinning example of intelligence. I had an array of bad influences around me and given that I still took a different path, I became what most of you would see as a “tagger”, yet to me I was an artist (though I still believe that). Against the words of wisdom from teachers, words of advice from family and even the determination for police enforcement to stop me I continued to practice my form. Long story short, the police was my nemesis and I considered them “stupid” in my eyes. They would rather chase me around the Marina, a prominent SF neighborhood, then to show up when we called about a man who was dying on my stairs (he had been badly stabbed). As I grew up and got older (notice growing up does not necessarily come with age) more of the same was around, but I no longer focused on only the police as enemies by themselves, but also school. I knew both were necessities in society, but it did not stop me from seeing them as a burden. I spent most of my time in school doodling on notebooks, desks, and some girl’s arm but instead of taking my education serious I just waited for practice to be over so I could do “me”. Teachers would scold me and my parents would let my excuses (at the time true reasons) fall on deaf ears; the world was against me. There are only so many times I wanted to hear or could hear “you have so much potential, use it for something worth wild”. Their shadows were always looming over me; from the brick building of my school, to the shadow of my mothers tears, even my own shadow covering me away from the lights of the red and blue. How wrong I was, how utterly simple and thus blinded I was, is in all honesty surprising to me even now. After doing this till my early twenties and consequentially never moving ahead in anything I wanted to achieve I broke the chains that I put on myself. That in itself was a struggle because I never wanted to admit I was my own cave, my own chains and still the prisoner, how could I believe that? Why would I want to do that myself? I decided to get my act together and take my education more serious and put down my markers, paints, ECT in exchange for a book and a pen. At this point it was not an easy climb out my cave. At first I was completely blind, no direction, and no idea of what I wanted to do. I had spent from 18-21 in college, but really had done nothing of significance. As I looked for guidance within some sort of soul searching I ended up where I am now, close to graduating from college (the first in my family ever) and taking the steps towards my eventual goal of becoming a police officer working within the system.
This might not be the same as Plato’s intent with the cave, but I also believe that once out the cave, even in this simple instance I would be done, be bored. Part of the strive to better myself, to keep seeing light is because I like the chase. I enjoy smashing into the wall at times and still have the ability to climb up, even as I leave a trail of blood against the cave floor. If the opening is so close and achievable then what’s next? As I said before I have seen true truths and false truths, and as much as I search for the truth in all, the point is in searching. When I find truth or knowledge I will be able to say it three times and know its absolute and just be able to sit back and reflect, no longer with an ability to search. So as of now I can see the outside, I can see what the light hides, but still need the walls of the cave to guide me.
I enjoyed reading your story. Even though we both lived different lives, we all have to go through moments of struggles, like, for example, how you said you had "an array of bad influences around" and were "completely blind, no direction". Going through difficult times and feeling lost without any direction are what pushes us to become better and move closer towards the light. No one is perfect (or is meant to be perfect) and we are all going to make mistakes there and back. I can see how you are determined to finish college and fulfill that goal of becoming a police officer. You will need to go through lots of tough and rigorous work, as well as life changing moments, in order to fulfill your goals and that is what shapes your identity and makes you who you are as a person.
ReplyDeleteYou, as well as myself and every one of us living in this world, are still stuck in the cave but as we go through life obstacles and learn from our mistakes, we make progress in climbing out of that cave and we move closer to the light. It takes an entire lifetime to find our true identity and our true purposes in our lives.
Without struggles and mistakes, no one would be able to learn in life. We should think of darkness as something that isn't always negative, rather it is what helps push us to become better people and get us into the light (or in other words, the goals that we want to achieve).
I feel that your story does relate to Plato's allegory of the cave, since there are infinite amount of ways of portraying what his allegory is. There isn't a right or wrong way of depicting what his cave really means.
Second part:
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That’s the prime reason I am so fascinated with how you intend to go into law enforcement yourself. Notice your own phrasing of wanting to “work within the system”. Originally you resented the difference in response to the stabbing in your apartment building and chasing taggers. Anger and resentment are knee-jerk emotional reactions. By contrast, now your stance on such disparate practices is reflective. You still disapprove but instead are working to *effect change* within the system. Furthermore, your work will bring you directly into the line of fire that you used to experience from the other side, and I’m sure your direct experience of it, in all its complicated shades of shadows, is what has drawn you to this work. It’s influenced you, but not controlled you. If it were controlling you even hypothetically as a police officer, it would take the form of you becoming a violent or corrupt cop, rather than the conscientious community member who we’re reading here.
For me, the definition of a critical thinker (emphasis on both meanings of the word critical) is that he or she is a critical actor--- in everything we do in life actually, at least to the best of our ability. When you are critical in the way you both think of and act in the world you live in, the cave ceases to hold you in shackles. You may still have to operate in that cave, and it may (will) still affect you: but, you are working to free others of their shackles too and, ideally, help them ascend to higher places and understandings. That higher place may actually be the original environment itself, but with an attitude and approach to life that seeks to make it a better place or even a survivable place, for example by helping kids stay out of trouble, develop their minds, and escape that cave, whether it’s away to the suburbs or back to the streets.
I spent a lot of time thinking over and writing this response, and hope that my general distinctions have come across; I know they’re complicated—and have respect for your own patient interrogation of their complexities. I focused in on how I think Plato is defining the cave because I noticed the metaphor spoke to you in its complexities, which I think is a defining mark of your development, both in your early and your current stories (and from one to the next). I’d enjoy discussing these more with you, so let me know if you’d like to discuss these topics as you’re working towards your essay topic. In the meantime, I cannot recommend analyzing the movie “La Haine” (“Hate”) enough. It speaks to me the same way your blog does, in a language that is as nuanced and complex as the world is, and working to develop an active and honest awareness of this. “Boyz in the Hood” could also be good if you focus on the film’s depiction of the character Furious Styles. Let me know if you’d like to discuss these or another movie choice. Excellent work here Rafael.
Rafael,
ReplyDeleteI referenced and linked my reply to your blog in one of your classmate's blogs. You may find her story or my reply relevant to your own material here, so I'm linking yours back to hers as well: http://chelseastruthenglish414.blogspot.com/2010/09/fear-of-light.html#comments.
America Ruacho
ReplyDeleteEnglish 414.05
Morris
September 7, 2010
Broken Chains
Your Plato’s Cave was very symbolic and I enjoyed reading it. The part where Plato is vague in the release of the enslaved prisoner, he gives room to the different forms a person can find release for themselves from their bonds. Your release was encouraging because you yourself were able to break from the bonds. I like how you admitted the hardship and struggles you went through. I also enjoyed your honesty I found the fact that even when you broke your bonds you had doubt. Being able to question your present lifestyle is a hard thing to do because no one likes to be wrong. But being able to do so shows a lot of character.
There are people that are lucky enough to have someone break their bond or release them from their chains. Some people are lucky enough to find this person who is able to help them free them. What I admire about your freedom was that you were able to set yourself free. It was not until you were free that you were able to see the shadows for what they truly were. When you mentioned your mothers tears as one of your shadows how did that shadow kept you in the cave? I would have thought that the tears of your mother would have helped you realize that you need to do something to change or in this case to leave cave.
What made you break your own chains, what was your motivation to leave the cave? In other words what was your wakeup call? You talk about your past and how you have changed but what made me curious was what made you decide to have a life different from the one you grew up with. One person cannot change from one day to another that is why the cove is a long trip up the light and there are times when some people do not make it out of the cave because they rather keep the shadows and stay in the cave; then to find the light and leave the cave.
Here's your blog response Rafael. Sorry for the technical difficulties!
ReplyDeleteOne first note: Google word counts are limited so I'm splitting this into two comments. Here's the first part:
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Not just your story but the way you articulated it are of great interest to me. As a kind of keynote of my response, as I've learned to read it, a cave for Plato is any environment that controls our behavior, perspective, and thought process.
Notice I said controls rather than influences. Of course every environment in our life influences us (home, community, country, school, friends groups, social matrices etc), but it seems possible to develop the discernment, will power, and purposefulness to reject or choose what forms that influence will take in our lives. Every single victim of abuse, for example, suffers emotional trauma that makes them tense up in threatening situations. Some respond violently themselves and perpetuate the cycle of abuse, while others go psychologically or even physically comatose, while yet others become wracked with nervous anxiety. If someone responds with an almost knee-jerk reaction, he or she is controlled by all that constitutes that shadow. By contrast, if one seeks therapy or works to develop coping and healing mechanisms, that not only takes developing a purpose and making a choice based upon it: it takes a willful act and extension of the self to do something about that condition.
This I see as the difference between control and influence. We are unconscious of what controls us, and thus succumb to habituated forms of thinking, feeling or acting that an environment or experience ingrains into us. By contrast, we are conscious of influence and take deliberate measures to manage, resolve, accept or reject our responses to it. All caves are not necessarily “bad” or immoral ---notice Plato never uses moral terms--- rather, the environments affect us rather than us effecting them (note the key difference between these two words as verbs, affect and effect).