In Book 7 of Plato’s Republic, Socrates relates the allegory of the cave. In the cave, men are forced to look at what the rulers want them to see. The men can neither move their heads nor avert their eyes. What they do see are shadows projected on the walls in front of them by the unseen people in charge. They never see reality or even who is creating this illusion. However, if the men were allowed out of the cave; they might be blinded by the brightness and mightn’t see the reality in front of them.

This allegory also applies to people living in post-industrialized, technologically-advanced countries today. That would be all of the so-called 1st world nations. I say ‘so-called’ because there are many ways in which we, who do live in 1st world nations, are no better off than those who live in countries that we derogatorily refer to as 3rd world. But more on that another time.

Here’s the conundrum: do we put up with the force-fed shadows on the wall of the cave or do we risk being blinded by the light of the truth outside the cave? Do we fight the shadows in our ‘cave’ in order to find the truth? The only reality we know are the shadows we are allowed to see. It’s not as simple as a politicised press (either liberal or conservative). It’s not as simple as a culture of corruption in D.C. It’s about a system that started as corrupt and can’t seem to get out of its own way.

There has never been a ‘democracy’ that’s been founded without a slave culture to support it. This was as true for the first democracy in Greece as it was for the representative democracy founded by the thirteen colonies. So, the American republic was founded with less-than honourable intentions. The Declaration proclaimed that all men were created equal, but when it came to writing a constitution it turned out that equality meant only white men who owned property. No one else was equal to these men. So, no one else was entitled to the franchise.

Yes, much has changed since then. We’ve spent much blood and treasure fighting a Civil War the end of which was supposed to ensure the franchise for black men (still no women). But, black men, and women, didn’t get the vote for another 100 years. So, was the Civil War fought to free the slaves? Sort of. It was fought to save capitalism. Freeing the slaves meant that the southern plantation owners would have to pay wages for work. That pleased the newly-industrialised north, since it couldn’t compete with the southern slave economy. It also allowed southern states to make sure that there was a permanent underclass of blacks to whom they could pay subsistence wages.

The argument can be made that if the aim of the Union had truly been to give equality to the slaves, it would have happened. But, the will was not there to do that. What the Union wanted was to force the southerners to compete economically on an equal footing.

We don’t learn that side of the Civil War looking at those shadows we’re shown on the wall of our ‘cave.’ If one investigates, the truth is there and doesn’t even blind you. It is hard to take, but in the end it’s worth the exercise. Look in the old Congressional Record from the days of Reconstruction. The radical Republicans made it very clear that the amendments to the Constitution were not about granting equality to former slaves. These amendments were about business and were interpreted that way by the Supreme Court for the next 100 years.

There’s another aspect of shadows to consider: shadows always make things look bigger. Remember when you were a child and your shadow was so tall? Shadows are bigger and more fearsome than anything in reality. If we allow it, shadows can overtake our imaginations and use them against us. So, here’s my question to you: do you want to continue to fight the shadows or face the light?

Please give what you can to Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders).

And, of course