In one of his most famous lessons, the Greek philosopher Plato told the story of men who lived in a cave, but their life was definitely not ordinary. Inside the cave, several men lived chained to a wall, they were not criminals, but they were bound from the earliest days of their childhood, these men were bound by shackles on their feet and their heads were tied by a chain around their necks which also blocked them from turning their heads and so they could only see what was in front of them, they couldn't even look at each other and then the only thing they could see in front of them was the bottom of the cave, illuminated by a light that was behind the wall in which they were chained and then on the other side of the cave, was a flame on a high place which illuminated the space and there was also a bridge at the wall, where men passed carrying objects and puppets at the height of the wall.
These objects were intended to cast a shadow at the bottom of the wall, and they did and the shadows that were cast by the puppets were all that the people who were bound by chains knew of the world and so they discussed amongst themselves about the objects, they gave them names and even discussed what could be their purposes and sometimes them men above carrying the objects would talk amongst themselves and the prisoners who could hear them due to the fact that the echoes from the cave got to them, they believed that it was the shadows that spoke.
One day, one of the prisoners broke free, and for this newly free man who could for the first time see things other than whatever appeared in front of him, seeing the shape and form of the other prisoners made him very confused and so he proceeded to jump over the wall and on the other side, he could see the flame that illuminated the bottom of the cave and this man was convinced that he had finally seen the sun, the element that allowed the whole world to exist and as this man began to see things that he had never even dreamt of existing, he started doubting himself thinking he might be crazy. The prisoner seeing the flames burn up close, although it burnt his eyes, he began to be fascinated and then this man noticed that at the exit of the cave, there was an even more fascinating light coming through the crack and so he decided to look for the source of the other even more fascinating light and leave the cave.
The way out was not easy as it was necessary to climb a steep slope in order to get to the surface and his muscles which had been underdeveloped due to the fact that he had been imprisoned all his life, made the climb even more difficult but finally he reached the outside of the cave, and the strong midday light blinded his sight as his eyes were only used to darkness. The man felt desperate as he thought he had gone blind but, after rubbing his eyes the uneasiness seemed to subside. Still with blurred vision, he was a stranger to all the reality that lay before him, he felt safer and more comfortable looking at the shadows as these were more familiar to him, but as his vision adapted to the new conditions, the man slowly began to better understand the world around him.
The remnants of objects were not what he had previously imagined, the man realized that the more fascinating and bright light was the sun and that it was the true source of all light and that the world which he had known and been living in was nothing more than an illusion, he began to live in harmony with this new reality and his past in the cave seemed to be behind him. However, as he passed in front of the cave once again, he remembered his colleagues with whom he had spent most of his life and he thought about how they were still trapped in the cave, believing that the shadow world was all there was.
The former prisoner decided to return back into the cave so as to reveal all the lies in which they had believed in all their lives and also to rescue them and lead them into the light and so when he got to them, he placed himself between his colleagues and the cave wall, but they did not recognize him, they believed that the man in front of them must have been one of the best shadow experts and so they challenged him to identify the images that emerged, alas, what had once seemed easy became difficult for him to identify, his vision was no longer accustomed to the darkness and so he decided to tell his colleagues everything that he had observed outside and all his experiences but the prisoners concluded that the light he saw on the outside was only a source of blindness and madness, the freed man however, did not give up on his colleagues and so he tried to break their chains, but the prisoners seemed determined to remain in the world of shadows because for them they believe that, that was the only truth that existed.
Due to this belief that the prisoners had, they were even willing to defend the chains that had held them captive and restricted all their lives.