The Allegory of the Cave

(The following is an excerpt from the book, Hacking Normal by John Stevenot available on Amazon.com)

In my meditation class in high school (yes, it was a class and we affectionately called it AP Nap Time), we had to read Plato’s famous Allegory of the Cave.

The allegory is told in three acts: imprisonment in the cave, departure from the cave, and returning to the cave. Each part is crucial to understand because it reveals a basic behavioral pattern within the human condition.

Below is a very short, Cliff Notes-esque version of the story. As you read the story, reflect on its abridged merits. Try to imagine where in your working life you are the prisoner and where you are the individual who has seen the truth.

Act One – Imprisonment in the Cave

Plato begins his allegory by asking us to imagine a cave filled with people who have been imprisoned from birth. Therefore, they know no other reality. These prisoners are chained together so that their legs and necks are in a fixed position which forces them to gaze at the wall in front of them.

Behind the prisoners is a fire and a raised walkway where other people are carrying objects “of men and other living things” 18 Hacking Normal while, at the same time, making various noises. The objects they carry cast shadows onto the wall in front of the prisoners. The noises are the auditory cues that the prisoners associate with each shadow (e.g. a chirp to a bird). The shadows are the unquestionable reality for the prisoners.

The shadows are the only reality the prisoners have ever known. The shadows are the only rules, benefits, comforts, and securities that the prisoners have ever experienced. It is very rare that new shadows and animals get introduced because they cause too much discomfort for the prisoners.

The parallel to work:

From childhood, we are inundated with ideas of what it is like to be an adult and work for a company. The shadows we watched dance on the walls were the stories we were told by our parents, teachers and society. Included in those stories were ideas on how to not get fired, how to be a good worker, and how to avoid getting in trouble and losing our jobs.

Most damagingly, we were taught how to achieve success within the confines of those stories. Some of those ideas included: sacrificing our time, playing the Game of Cubicles, and climbing the corporate ladder in order to retire rich on the beach with a margarita in hand and sand between our toes. We were never told to question the status quo or look for something different. We were told only to stay the course.

Act Two – Departure from the Cave

Plato then supposes that one prisoner is freed. How the prisoner is freed is not important. What is important is that the prisoner is now looking around him and sees that the shadows are being made by something else: a fire. 

At this point, Plato proposes two courses of action for the freed prisoner.

The first (and most likely), is that the prisoner would choose not to believe his new reality and would go back to his chains and shadows. He would forget what he saw and remain oblivious to the new information presented to him because it is uncomfortable and scary.

The second course of action would be that the freed prisoner, by either choice or force (most likely force because no one wants to willingly up-end their understanding of reality), would walk past the fire toward the entrance of the cave.

Plato says that as the freed prisoner gets closer and closer to the entrance of the cave, sunlight (a metaphor for truth) gets brighter and brighter. At first, the prisoner covers his eyes, but eventually his eyes adjust to the light and he can see a whole new, vibrant world in front of him. He sees the true world, and the true world is more beautiful than the shadows ever were.

The parallel to work:

In my experience, this departure only comes when a mentor or new responsibility calls on a person to question his or her situation. A mentor who sees potential in an individual can persuade that person to question and slowly change his or her environment. Oftentimes, this is done through books or demonstration.

The second type of departure comes from the force of having to deal with a new responsibility (e.g. kids, position, or reassignment – a.k.a. firing). In either situation, the worker has been given the opportunity to seek out something new and better for his life, but it is up to the individual to take the necessary steps in order to realize and appreciate this new way of operating within the norms of society.

Act Three – Return to the Cave

Here’s where the story gets interesting. Plato continues, saying that the freed prisoner, because of this new knowledge of beauty and reality, would pity his past chain-mates. He would want to bring the news of this better reality back to them.

With glee and enthusiasm, the freed prisoner runs back into the dark.

At this moment, two things happen.

First, the man cannot see within the cave. His eyes are no longer accustomed to the dark and shadows (curse of knowledge). He fumbles through the caves, grasping for help from the walls (inability to relate). The other prisoners, who have now been disturbed by all the racket, are staring at the freed prisoner in astonishment.

The second thing that happens is that the freed prisoner begins to herald the beauty that he has discovered and that if the others want to see this beauty, they only must “throw off their chains.” The problem, though, is that he is yelling at the walls and appears to have gone mad with blindness.

The prisoners, being stuck in their shadowy reality, reject the freed prisoner.

They fear both the uncertainty of what he speaks and the crippling blindness (caused by the light) of the freed prisoner. They do not realize that it is the truth that the freed prisoner is accustomed to, not the lies perpetrated in the dark. Therefore, the words spoken by the freed prisoner fall on deaf ears.

The prisoners question what beauty there could be outside the cave. All they have ever seen is the light from the fire and the dancing of the shadows. The prisoners conclude that the “truth” has irreparably harmed the freed prisoner and that they should not undertake a similar journey.

Plato ends his allegory with a bold and damning accusation. Plato believes that the prisoners would then try to kill the messenger because darkness and shadows are the only world they know and ever want to know.

The parallel to work and this book:

The point of this book is to give me the opportunity to herald the beautiful world that I have discovered. The problem is many people see me as blind and naive. These people see the ideas that you are about to read as both impossible and impractical.

To that, I can only say: Maybe they are, but have you tried them?

Are you so content with your situation, your reality, that you are unwilling to question it? If so, that’s fine. But I hope that there is a community of people out there who are willing to take a chance, who are willing to remove their chains for something different.