Plato’s Allegory of the Cave & Empire of Illusion Reflection

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Tavari Wheatle September 7, 2012 Mrs.Weseloh HZT 4U1 Plato’s Allegory of the Cave & Empire of Illusion Reflection “A culture that cannot distinguish between reality and illusion dies. And we are dying now.” I believe that the author Chris Hedges has proposed that society is changing quickly and not for the better. According to Hedges, people are becoming slaves to entertainment and the media and we are forgetting what reality really is. The people of today are wrapped up in illusions and fantasies and we are beginning to forget that they are only fantasies. I do believe that we are like the pitiful people Plato described in his “parable of the cave” because like those cave people, people in this modern day society do not question many things shown or advertised in the media by celebrities because we idolize these people and we tend to accept whatever “illusion” they present to us because we want to be like those people. In a sense, these illusions have become escape from our real lives because we attracted to entertainment and we live to see these things evolve into something better or worse. We are part of a dying culture because we tend to measure the value of our lives and worth with the celebrities, TV shows and advertisements we see on TV. If we don’t meet these standards, then our lives are not good or sufficient enough. This is not a good thing because instead of being satisfied and proud with what we have accomplished or the little that we have, we are constantly told by the media that we will not be happy enough until we have a certain object or achieve a certain look. The more we become bombarded with these messages, the more likely we are to buy into them and accept them as a normal part of our lives; this results in people living in these fantasy worlds. If this type of mentality is continued into the future then originality and

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