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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   4031 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for February 10, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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People have nothing better to do than to chain NPCs to a cave and give them an indonesian muppet show all day long?

What do you think Hollywood, art, mass media, religion, and culture essentially are? If you are the one putting on the show you guide the reality-perception of the masses. That's the stuff that builds (or destroys) civilization. The cave allegory is lame because it supposes some duty for philosophers to liberate the NPCs. But that's not possible or desirable. The vast majority of people are probably not capable of living without some sort of structure defined by the puppet show put on by the elites.

The cave allegory should be properly understood as recognizing the power of mass media and culture over the masses. Plato understood the psychological power of light projection thousands of years before the creation of cinema. That should be the real takeaway from the allegory.

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