James Fitzgerald

PHIL 1301, Sec. 25010

0/21/2010, Essay No. 1

No Body’s Right if Everybody’s Wrong

(The Fool on the Hill, they can tell what he wants to do)

In my essay I shall take a leap in claiming to have some idea of a true and deeper

meaning of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. I will attempt to convince you, the reader, that

you have created a virtual mind-prison of your very own and how you now attempt to

free yourself from these self-imposed walls you have pieced together with the generous

help of others. I will propose also how at least one modern film can, if you pay close

attention, help you understand how it is indeed possible to awaken from a dream where

you discover you have been living in a modern version of Plato’s Cave all along.

The shadows Plato describes in his fairytale for young adults are real, he

understood this, he knew these phantoms of belief already existed in the minds of the men

of Athens. I say Plato knew the shadows were what most men believed to represent the

only true reality outside their faith in how the Gods were very real and how mere humans

were their playthings. His story of the mythical cave was a way he might influence the

minds of listeners looking for truth and wisdom in such as a way to avoid being lynched

for heresy!

What was the Form of these shadows and where did they come from? The past,

the stories, the beliefs, the myths and legends of the times, words and teachings of every

instructor, parent, guardian, friend, foe, liar and soothsayer were just a few of the

fountains of information these young Athenian minds had been absorbing since birth and

maybe even before.

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 In the motion picture The Matrix, Morpheus, the leader of the people of Zion, the

city that exists outside the Matrix, describes to Neo, the young man the crew of

Morpheus’ ship, the Nebuchadnezzar, has unplugged from the Matrix by hacking into the

Machines mainframe, where he had lived his entire life. How he hadn’t been living in the

real world at all, instead, he had existed in a make believe place where all his experiences

have been data files fed into the neural networks of his brain. Here, it’s best if I reprint

the words of the characters in order to demonstrate their full importance.

“What is real? How do you define real? If you're talking about what you can hear,

what you can smell, taste and feel, then real is simply electrical signals interpreted by

your brain.” “The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're

inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters.

The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still

a part of that system, and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of

these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so

hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.” “What if when you

woke up, you didn't know the difference between the dream world, and the real world?

That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage, born into a

prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch. A prison for your mind.” “Unfortunately,

no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself. This is your last

chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill, the story ends, you

wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you

stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember: all I'm

offering is the truth. Nothing more.” “You're here because you know something. What

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you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, that there's

something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter

in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know

what I'm talking about?”

What is important that you understand is that my proprosition is this; the system

referred to in this story is not an computer program controlling our entire exsistance but

how, in a very real sense, it is one of our own making, one that has evolved into a

faxcimlie of what we percieve as “concreate” reality. Here, Platos cave is contrived as the

Matrix by the film makers in order to suggest how we can, at any point, choose to free

ourselves from a system of ignorence and rebuild our personal belief system into one that

is truly our own and not one of a cassarole of bits and pieces of data picked up along our

way to this point, this school, this classroom.

Morpheus returned to the Matrix again and again, at great risk to himself, he was

at war with the Machines, he sought to destroy the Matrix anyway he could, he was the

solid leader, he lived to free all the humans from a world where they provided energy,

each a kind of battery, kept subservient and blind by a continuous steam of pre-

programmed illusion. Making it possible for the artificially created human beings to

awaken and live in the Real World where they would be free to determine their own

destinies was this black messiahs life dream. In the Machine World, the shadows were

those created by the Machines only to insure its own survival, it cared nothing for the

lives of those it created, it could not care, it did not have a soul and the soul is what

Socrates believed was what made us human after all. What is it that creates the shadows

in 2010? Perhaps these old and moldy ancient philosophies have no place in the 22nd

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century, or, they are actually more important in our so-called modern age than ever

before; not very hip but more real and relevant than video games and ipods I will argue.

Your young minds are, in these modern times, a newer and fresher form of

commodity. Plato wrote of how democracies would eventually decay into oligarchies or

anarchy but he was talking about the rich and powerful using their influence and ability

to corrupt absolutely to push governments into this evolutionary process. Although his

projection did not ever come to pass in Greece itself, his “prophecy” has come to pass in

other countries in this modern age. In the brave new world we live in today I believe his

vision will become quite real however in a sort of reverse process. Corporations, the

LLC’s, our newest artificially and legally created “humans”, or more to the point, people,

will instead evolve into smaller forms of mini-governments that will eventually gain

enough cash, power and influence to “buy” or take control of existing democratically

elected governments. From this power base, they will be able to enforce their own new

laws controlling product consumption upon the citizens. Or, at the very least, those

citizens who continued to believe they were living in a democracy not having noticed that

it had been sold right from underneath them as they slept or stared zombie like at the

shadows on the wall. Your young impressionable selves will become the copper tops of

tomorrow, interfaced DIRECTLY into product development, manufacturing, and MOST

importantly, the CONSUMPTION of vast quantities of everything from pharmaceuticals

to energy fuels. Complete with tiny blue light emitting diodes aglow here and there,

texting at lightning speeds, highly organized noise delivered to the brain via cochlea

implants the level of which will be equalized and controlled by the ISP’s controlled in

turn by BP, Shell, Exxon-Mobil or some other LLC. You will rock to the band Viagra

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and long awaited happiness of the Utopian variety will at long, long last, be fully

realized. As students, you will be re-branded, your franchise owned and operated by

Chinese speaking gentleman who might, just might, not decide your future as a side dish

to the New Chow Mien at their place in New Shanghi California.

I fear Socrates knew full well what was about to fall on him just as Christ knew

how his meeting with Pilate was going to turn out, and he was tired, perhaps even bored,

and ready, knowing he suffered from some terminal illness, or, was in the early stages of

Alzheimer’s disease. I have to wonder if he knew who the puppeteers were in the Cave,

he knew these five hundred good fellows were those very same power brokers and

dealers he chatted with in the streets. He had been invited on more that one occasion to

join their club but the Old Soc was a loner, a dreamer. I know that he knew their

propositions, their overtures were attempts at making him a happier old curmudgeon and

maybe a little less chatty about how he saw things going in the old City. He was already

pushing seventy as I am now cursing at 65 and I feel this gives me some license to say a

few things out of form and turn, talking out of class in a way.

I have tried in my own way to follow the correct form of essay writing but I

suspect hearing the foots falls of the Dark Angel hastens my pace at times and I grow

impatient, fed up a tiny bit like Old Socrates. I beg your indulgence and I write a warning

as did these long dead gentlemen cautioned their heirs, THINK, don’t ABSORB, TRUST

but VERIFY, in the words of Bob Dylan, a great philosopher of the modern age;

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Subterranean Homesick Blues
Bob Dylan

Johnny's in the basement

Mixing up the medicine
I'm on the pavement
Thinking about the government
The man in the trench coat
Badge out, laid off
Says he's got a bad cough
Wants to get it paid off
Look out kid
It's somethin' you did
God knows when
But you're doin' it again
You better duck down the alley way
Lookin' for a new friend
The man in the coon-skin cap
In the big pen
Wants eleven dollar bills
You only got ten

Maggie comes fleet foot

Face full of black soot
Talkin' that the heat put
Plants in the bed but
The phone's tapped anyway
Maggie says that many say
They must bust in early May
Orders from the D. A.
Look out kid
Don't matter what you did
Walk on your tip toes
Don't try "No Doz"
Better stay away from those
That carry around a fire hose
Keep a clean nose
Watch the plain clothes
You don't need a weather man
To know which way the wind blows

Get sick, get well

Hang around a ink well
Ring bell, hard to tell
If anything is goin' to sell
Try hard, get barred
Get back, write braille

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Get jailed, jump bail
Join the army, if you fail
Look out kid
You're gonna get hit
But users, cheaters
Six-time losers
Hang around the theaters
Girl by the whirlpool
Lookin' for a new fool
Don't follow leaders
Watch the parkin' meters

Ah get born, keep warm

Short pants, romance, learn to dance
Get dressed, get blessed
Try to be a success
Please her, please him, buy gifts
Don't steal, don't lift
Twenty years of schoolin'
And they put you on the day shift
Look out kid
They keep it all hid
Better jump down a manhole
Light yourself a candle
Don't wear sandals
Try to avoid the scandals
Don't wanna be a bum
You better chew gum
The pump don't work
'Cause the vandals took the handles

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 Forgive me if you feel taken advantage of, talked down to, or whooped

but someone has to tell you the truth about something someday and this may

be a good time, this class could be the most important you EVER take, or

NOT! Me, I have nothing really to lose but, my young friends you do and

it’s all closer than the objects in your rear view mirrors appear, of this I can

assure you. You all, hopefully, have been told the truth about something by

some one already and that’s a good thing. From here on out though, it gets a

LOT more iffy. I wouldn’t presume to say lies so much……but the Untruth

takes many-a-shadow-form as dis-information, truth within lies and vise-

versa, bambozzlese, my favorite, and omission. If you like Rush Limbaugh,

listen to Father Charles Coughlin, he’s old and his skin is cold but you will

see how there is nothing new under the sun EXCEPT silicon-based

microchips, the human soul remains eternally untouched and unchanged but

still very, very afraid. And a healthy level of fear is not such a bad thing as

along as you know why you are afraid….and exactly of what!

So, if this is the last of me, if I just quietly disappear some day but I left a

note claiming that Karl Rove is responsible and there is a connection

between the murders of JFK and the Diem brothers in South Vietnam, so

long and thanks for all the fish, cheers, party on m’hardies but be ready for

anything because from here on it gets a LOT stranger. Freedom isn’t free

and if it’s justice for all who can afford it, I’m ‘outta here. I broke a lot of

rules, made some up but remember this, “it starts when you’re always afraid,

step ‘outta line and the man will come take you away.”

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 Bibliography

“Philosophy: Who Needs It” Ayn Rand 1974

“The Classical Greeks” Michael Grant 1989

“Plato and the Internet”, Kieron O’Hara 2002

“The Matrix” The Wachowskis Bros. 1999

“For What It’s Worth” Buffalo Springfield

“Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” Douglas Adams

“The End” The Doors

“Fool on the Hill” The Beatles

Words and phrases deliberately NOT used in this paper;

Out of the box

Moving forward

Inpact(ed)

Exciting

Awesome

End of the day

Bottom line

Transparent

And just for fun……..

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 The Fool on the Hill

Day after day,

Alone on a hill,
The man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still
But nobody wants to know him,
They can see that he's just a fool,
And he never gives an answer,

But the fool on the hill,

Sees the sun going down,
And the eyes in his head,
See the world spinning 'round.

Well on the way,

Head in a cloud,
The man of a thousand voices talking perfectly loud
But nobody ever hears him,
or the sound he appears to make,
and he never seems to notice,

But the fool on the hill,

Sees the sun going down,
And the eyes in his head,
See the world spinning 'round.

And nobody seems to like him,

they can tell what he wants to do,
and he never shows his feelings,

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 But the fool on the hill,
Sees the sun going down,
And the eyes in his head,
See the world spinning 'round.

And he never listens to them,

He knows that they're the fools
They don't like him,

The fool on the hill

Sees the sun going down,
And the eyes in his head,
See the world spinning 'round.

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 James Fitzgerald
PHIL 1301, Sec. 25010
0/21/2010, Essay No. 1

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