On Conservative Thinking: Plato's Cave and Shadow Whisperers

forsetti:

forsetti:

“Ignorance, the root and stem of every evil.”
-Plato “The Republic”

One of the best and most beautifully written metaphors in Western Philosophy is Plate’s Allegory of the Cave from Book VII of “The Republic.” Plato uses the metaphor to explain the effects of education on people, to show four different ways of thinking and ultimately four different ways of life. I want to focus on how the Allegory of the Cave shows how and why belief systems are created, manipulated, maintained and defended and how all of this applies to conservative thinking.

One of the reasons the Allegory of the Cave is so good is because it is easy to understand. Instead of writing out the Allegory to explain it, watch this short claymation video which does a better job than any synopsis I could write.

When it comes to beliefs, everyone starts out as prisoners chained to the cave facing a wall on which shadows are cast. They don’t know what they are seeing and come up with interpretations of what the shadows mean. This is what we are as newly born infants. The perceptions we experience are things we either interpret on our own or by other people telling us what the shadows represent. Someone who interprets the shadows for us I call “Shadow Whisperers.” Shadow Whisperers are people who explain to the prisoners what it is they are seeing on the cave wall. Shadow Whisperers are often fellow prisoners. Sometimes they are people who know the shadows are not real but don’t know their true nature. Sometimes they are people who have been outside the cave and know the truth who are trying to help the prisoners understand what they are seeing. Sometimes they know the truth but instead of interpreting the shadows correctly for the prisoners, they intentionally lie. Shadow Whisperers are one of the main ways people learn about the world. They are an integral part of how our belief systems are constructed.

“Those who don’t know must learn from those who do.”
-Plato “The Republic”

For most of us, our parents are our first Shadow Whisperers. They try and help us make sense of the images we see. How well our interpretations of the shadows match up to reality depends on whether or not our parents’ interpretations-whether their belief systems have been constructed on reality or the shadows. Are they teaching us from the position of a prisoner or as someone who has freed themselves? If they are prisoners too, who have never been freed to see the source of the shadows, have never been outside in the light, their belief systems, their interpretations will be inaccurate. If their interpretations are inaccurate, the belief system they help construct for their child will be inaccurate as well. If the parents have been freed from their epistemological chains, have seen the source of the light and the nature of things behind the images that make up the shadows, the belief system they help construct for their child will be based on reality, accurate. For most of us, our belief systems were originally built and organized by the interpretations of the shadows by our parents, close family members, teachers, priests… For the first part of our lives, the nature of our system will only be as good as the systems of the Shadow Whisperers in our lives.

At some point, we may question the interpretations we’ve been told about the shadows on the wall. This can come about because of conflicting interpretations from different Whisperers or for a host of other reasons. If we can free ourselves from the chains, from the interpretations of the shadows and belief systems of others, we have the opportunity to turn around and see what is causing the shadows. If we can free ourselves even further, we can leave the cave and see reality. Once we do this we can begin to reconstruct our belief systems anew so our interpretations of the shadows matches with the world outside the cave-our belief system matches with reality. This is ultimately the goal of education-free the prisoner from the shadows. This is what each individual should strive to accomplish. This is a tall order not just for an education system but for an individual under the most nurturing of circumstances. It is almost impossible to break away when many of the Shadow Whisperers have vested interests in making sure prisoners never, ever turn around, leave the cave, learn the true nature of things. Some ideologies and the belief systems they create are designed to keep people chained to the cave, staring at the shadows.

Conservatism is an ideology that demands prisoners stay chained to the cave, staring at the shadows on the wall. It demands belief systems be constructed on specific interpretations of the shadows. Interpretations that do not and often are not based on reality. Conservatism by its very nature is not only afraid of the world outside the cave it often has to deny its very existence in order to maintain the status quo. Whatever the conservative system, whether it is religious, cultural or political in nature, it can only continue if prisoners never turn around, never question what they see/hear, never leave the cave. Conservative systems know this and take great lengths to keep people chained to the cave. They know how important Shadow Whisperers are to the success of their system. The more control they have over the interpretation of the shadows for the prisoners, the control of the message, the more control they have over the prisoners’ belief systems. Conservative systems go to great lengths to make sure no one turns around, no one pulls back the curtain and exposes the facade they’ve constructed, no one who does escape and sees the outside world is allowed back in to upset the status quo. The very nature of conservatism demands prisoners never learn the truth.

People leading today’s political conservatism know this and have mastered how to keep people chained to the wall of the cave. The old, time-honored tactics of guilt, nationalism, tribalism, racism… have been enhanced with knowledge of human psychology, marketing, and social media allowing conservatives to build a stronger self-perpetuating system where few break free. One of the most important features necessary to maintain this type of system, one they have mastered is the use of Shadow Whisperers. Fox News is a Shadow Whisperer. Right wing talk radio is a Shadow Whisperer. The business model of news is a Shadow Whisperer. People who rewrite history and publish it in school textbooks are Shadow Whisperers. These and much, much more are designed to tell people in a very specific way what it is they are seeing on the wall of the cave. They do this in a loud, organized, repetitive way in order to drown out any alternative interpretations, any education, any truth. The goal of conservative systems is not learning but rather the building and maintenance of a specific type of belief system that is adverse to curiosity, inquiry, and change.

When the conservative prisoners see a shadow on the wall that is being cast by the Affordable Care Act, the Shadow Whisperers are there to make sure to explain what it is they are seeing-”Government takeover of healthcare!” “Socialism!” “Tyranny!” “Death Panels!” “job killing”… If they were able to turn around and see what was causing these images or step completely outside the cave they would see nothing like what they are being told by the Whisperers. They would see millions more covered by health insurance, healthcare costs no longer rising at steep rates, lower rates in teen pregnancies, thousands of jobs being created in the healthcare field… The reality would not match up with the Shadow Whisperers’ descriptions.

This same situation is true with a lot of issues-climate change, tax cuts, economic growth, foreign policy… what the prisoners are told by the Shadow Whisperers does not match up with reality. If someone who has been freed, who has been outside the conservative cave and seen reality comes back and tells the prisoners what the shadows really mean, what they really represent, the prisoners won’t believe them and just in case they might there is a cadre of Shadow Whisperers right there to tell them the outsider is wrong, lying, mad. Since the shadows and how they have been interpreted by the Shadow Whisperers is all the prisoners know, the descriptions from outsiders are easily disregarded and not believed because they fit perfectly into their belief system.

I’ve run into many a conservative who is a prisoner in their cave. It does not matter what anyone tells them about the outside world, of reality. Their entire belief system is built on the interpretations of the shadows told to them by their Whisperers. If your interpretation is different than what they already believe, have been and are being told, they not only reject it, they cannot understand it. They cannot fit or process it into their belief system. You can show all the evidence you want to support your claim and it doesn’t make a lick of difference. Try it. Tell a conservative prisoner President Obama has not just reduced the deficit since he took office but has reduced it by hundreds of billions of dollars, the greatest deficit reduction in U.S. history. Watch them stare at the wall of their cave and tell you with absolute certitude it isn’t true, he has increased the deficit. For them, the shadows on the wall being cast by the deficit have been interpreted as having increased since Obama took office. The reason they “know” this to be true is because that is exactly what their Shadow Whisperers have been telling them over and over and over and over for almost six years. This is one of the main reasons behind why conservatives will vote against their own interests-they don’t believe it is against their interests because the Whisperers have been telling them it isn’t for decades.

“How could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads?”
-Plato “The Republic”

Many of the conservative Shadow Whisperers and the people who organize and put them in place benefit greatly by having the prisoners chained to the wall of the cave. Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Rupert Murdoch…make millions and millions of dollars by making sure conservatives remain chained to the wall. Freedom Works, Focus on the Family, The Heritage Foundation, American Enterprise Institute…make millions from being Shadow Whisperers. The truly tragic irony is most of the money they make is from the very prisoners they keep chained to the cave. Billions of dollars have been paid by conservative prisoners to their Shadow Whisperers to make sure what they are being told doesn’t change. The Shadow Whisperers are more than willing to honor this request because they don’t want to end the cycle of dysfunction, they flow of money and the power they hold over the prisoners.

If Republicans don’t like the description of being prisoners chained to their ideology and being manipulated by Shadow Whisperers, too bad. It is the nature of conservatism. It is the system they want and defend at all costs. Right now, Republicans are the ones who have adopted this position of conservatism. For many years in American History, it was the Democrats who were the conservatives. Democrats were the ones who were for slavery, Jim Crow, and segregation. They were conservatives. Conservatism is an ideology, Republican is a political party, they are not necessarily the same they just happen to be right now. For decades it was Democrats who were prisoners, chained to the wall of their own ideology, especially when it came to issues like civil rights and corporations. During this time, they had many a Shadow Whisperer making sure the status quo was maintained, telling the prisoners that whites were superior to blacks, that segregation was God’s plan, that lynchings were justifiable… The nature and structure of the conservative cave haven’t changed much the past sixty years outside the expansion and use of Shadow Whisperers. What has changed is the name by which the prisoners identify themselves. Today they mostly go by “Republican” with quite a few “Libertarians” and “Independents” in the mix.

Today’s conservatives are trapped in a cave of their own design. It is difficult for them to even see reasons to leave, to look at what is really casting the shadows on the wall, what the shadows really represent. They have done a very good job cutting off many of the traditional avenues used by prisoners of the past who freed themselves. They have gutted public education and what they haven’t decimated they have fought against any positive reforms and inserted textbooks that reinforce the interpretations of their Whisperers. Anyone running for political office must pass a conservative cave purity test to make sure they know the Shadow Whisperer’s message and lingo. Whisperers who go off script are quickly reprimanded, disavowed and replaced with someone else. Those who know how the system works and who don’t buck it are reinforced and rewarded. It is very difficult to impossible to make any significant changes to a system built to be insular from criticism.

This is not to say that progressive belief systems are immune to miseducation and Whisperers of their own who intentionally or unintentionally interpret the shadows wrongly. One major difference between conservative and progressive systems is these Whisperers are a bug, not a feature. There certainly are areas in today’s progressivism where the Shadow Whisperers seem adamant about keeping people chained to a certain belief-anti-vaccination and anti-GMO Whisperers come to mind. However, the nature of progress is counter-intuitive and counter-productive to maintaining the status quo. If keeping people from learning the true nature of their experiences becomes a habit or a goal of a system it becomes conservative and ceases to be progressive. The goal of progressivism is to free prisoners from their chains of illusions. What cannot be done with much if any success is taking a progressive approach in a conservative system. Enlightened interpretations of the shadows cannot be understood by the prisoners. They are too foreign, cannot fit into their belief systems and the people the prisoners have always relied on to interpret the shadows denounce them in unison making it easy to reject them.

“Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood, let alone believed, by the masses.”
-Plato “The Republic”

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave helps us understand how a conservative belief system is constructed and maintained. It provides an incomplete explanation as to why conservatives are so resistant to change and nothing on what it takes for real change to occur. To better understand these aspects of belief systems, especially conservative systems, we need to move away from 360 B.C.E. and Plato to the 20^th Century philosophies of Thomas Kuhn and W.V.O. Quine.

Next: “On Conservative Thinking: Shifting Webs of Belief.” 

With the influx of new followers, I thought I would reblog previously posted articles.  This one ties in with the article about Rural America.

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