“The Missing Body Concept”

(a piece referred to in question #3 of my written response)

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave

2400 years ago, an Athenian philosopher by the name of Plato authored a Socratic dialogue called The Republic, containing Allegory of the Cave. Plato’s aims for this dialogue were to spread the truth about justice and beauty by utilizing the story’s representations of their changing society and the strength of higher powers. This media artifact directly correlates with not just the governing bodies from thousands of years ago, but also the government of our world today. The cave’s prisoners represent some modern-day civilians, completely naive to what goes on within the government. In some countries when higher powers decide on releasing information to the public, they do so as sparingly as possible; like they’re trying to prevent society from stumbling upon their darkest secrets. In Plato’s allegory, the prisoners are chained inside a cave with a fire burning behind their backs. As people, animals and other figures pass by, shadows are routinely cast upon the cave walls. This is all the prisoners have ever known and is what they believe life entails for them. But in reality, their society’s higher power is forcing slaves to walk back and forth in front of the fire with figure cutouts, puppeteering the prisoner’s perceptions of reality right in front of them. This multi-thousand-year-old allegory is a direct reflection of some governments today. Meticulously deciding what news stories should be released, controlling viral internet trends and shaping every conspiracy theory the sun shines its light on. Media has managed to transform itself into some government’s secret weapon that they’ve hidden in plain sight to act as virtual brainwashing for the public. But little do we know it, governments have moulded this technology into an everyday routine that society can no longer live without.