Society today is changing at a phenomenal rate. Many people are left behind only to find themselves being forced to catch up. More than 2000 years ago, Plato wrote "The Allegory of the Cave" which contemplates the process of change and the acceptance of it. The views Plato expressed in his writings can still be used to describe the world today. Everyone begins in the dark. We enter this world a blank slate where our parents and the formal education system nurture, protect, and try to prepare us for life. After we finish school and move out of our parent's home we are rudely awakened by the harsh reality of the real world. The enlightenment we experience when we reach adulthood is only the beginning, but it is enough for us to know we don't want to go back where we started.
As infants we see things in the most basic form; we do not have any understanding of what we see or hear. Our parents teach us what they think we should know, and how we should act. Our schools teach us what we need to know to survive in today's economic society. We accept what they teach, and do not question why because we do not know for sure what lies ahead. Plato symbolizes this when he writes "human beings living in an underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light their legs and neck chained so that they cannot move" (315, 316).
We finally finish school and leave the comfort of our parent's home; we are tossed into the midst of the real world and all of its harshness. At first it is a struggle, in most instances we are afraid, and many are not ready for the change. We are eventually able to meet the challenge; we settle into our routine and welcome the next challenge. Plato sums this up when he writes "when any of them is liberated and compelled to suddenly stand up and turn his neck around and look towards the light, he will suffer sharp pains and his eye is turned towards more real existence, he has a clearer vision" (317).
