Discussion:
Plato! Plato knew that most people do not think a lot about important issues; yet, Plato understood it was important for people to think about issues, especially politics that affects every person's life. Plato did his teaching must like religious figures/gods, through storytelling. Plato's most famous story is from The Republic called the "Allegory of the Cave." In this story, Plato's story details the current state of the political world, people's ignorance, and the importance of being involved in the political process (Plato, trans. 2009). One central theme of this story is about emotional verse rational thinking, which is why ideologues make bad political scientist (Roskin et al., 2014).
Interestingly in the Allegory of the Cave, Plato alludes to the detrimental effect of emotional thinking when explaining the cave. In the save, people are chained to the wall and can only move their heads. These prisoners are shown shadows of objects and told what they are by the overseers. The chained people respond by agreeing with the overseers. Then someone breaks free and finds an alternative reality, this person comes back to explain this new reality to the prisoners. The prisoners see this free person as a traitor and try to kill this person. Plato's point: Often people react with emotion and not reason.
We are going to discuss the Allegory and its implication in our lives today. Are U.S. citizens living in the cave of ignorance? Explain how you came up with your conclusion? What suggestions does Plato give that would be applicable today? What about you? Do you live in political ignorance?
References
Plato. (trans. 2009). The Republic. G. Farlik (Trans). Denver, CO: Parietal Publishing.
Roskin, M. G., Cord, R. L., Medeiros, J. A., & Jones, W. S. (2014). Political Science: An introduction (13th ed). [VitalSource Bookshelf version].