Blog 1: The Cave and I (Revised)

Ignorance is not bliss. Therefore, living in a cave being completely oblivious from the truth doesn’t scream happiness to me. Knowledge is power. Knowing the truth is eye-opening. In Plato's text, the prisoner that left the cave and went out into the light suffered from sharp pains. The truth hurts. When people’s outlook on the world is shattered, it is upsetting. No one wants to be told that all they’ve ever known was a lie. In the passage, Socrates said, "...in the world of knowledge, the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort..." It means the truth doesn't come easily.

Supposedly, being ignorant from the truth makes one feel safe and comfortable. To me, it’s never good to feel comfortable. How can you develop and grow as a human being if you’re comfortable with what you already know? Why not become more knowledgeable? It blows my mind when people say they’d rather not know something. It might hurt their feelings, but that’s how you become stronger as a person. I rather be heartbroken by the truth than be happy because of a lie.

For example, there are many tv shows, movies and books that have spouses cheating on each other with someone else. The cheater (let’s just say it’s a man) says he has business to handle but in actuality he is on his way to go cheat on his wife. When he comes home back to his wife, he acts normal as if nothing has happened. The wife doesn’t suspect a thing because her husband is acting normal. Little does she know, he’s out with a bunch of women every weekend. The man is trying to save her from heartache by keeping this information away from her. But is this really the right thing to do? I wouldn’t say so. If their love was really strong, he’d tell her the truth and possibly work things out. At first, the wife would be in denial because of how normal he would act when he would get home, but eventually, she would put two and two together and have the courage to act on it. No woman would say to her husband, “I wish you hadn’t told me. Now our marriage is going to fall apart.” I don’t know anyone who would say such a thing. They would want to know so that they could make the decision to stay and work it out or get a divorce. See, not knowing her husband was cheating is comfortable for the wife, but it isn’t the right way to live.

The truth can leave a huge impact on one's life. Your whole outlook on life suddenly becomes extremely different. Change can absolutely be a great thing. In my past, there had been this one person who I was very close with and we told each other everything. She was basically an older sister to me. She later became a bad influence on me but I didn't see it as that. I was just "having fun". My mother found out the things we were doing and she confronted my friend. As soon as that happened, everything became different. She wasn't the person who I thought she was. I found out from another friend that she had been talking about me behind my back. She started treating me different. She became an ice queen towards me. Our relationship hasn't been the same since. Now she's just a person I used to know; I don't know her anymore. The whole situation left me heartbroken. I felt like the prisoner from Plato's text who got to leave the cave and see the real world. He was in pain and suffering from seeing the truth and that's exactly how I felt. It took a long time for me to accept the fact that we were no longer friends and that everything had changed so quickly. Letting go of someone who was putting a burden on my back was actually upsetting but I was relieved at the same time. It was a learning experience that I grew from. I believe that when the truth changes everything, it is positive, even if the situation happened in a negative way. I even have "embrace change" tattooed on my arm. The truth will set you free. This sounds very cliché, but I believe that it is true.

Blog 2: The Allegory of the Cave

In "The Allegory of the Cave", Socrates uses a metaphor to describe people living in an illusion. The prisoners were in a cave and all they were exposed to were shadows. They didn't know that they were looking at shadows. What they thought were books were shadows of books. What they thought were people, were shadows of people. They were figuratively blind. One of the prisoners got to experience the real world and saw the truth. Everything he had ever known was a lie. Actually, illusions aren't lies. They have two different meanings. Lies are told intentionally. A liar intentionally hides the truth from someone. When you are living in an illusion, you are ignorant. You don't have the knowledge to understand that what you know isn't true.

There are many examples in human history that show people all over the world who have lived in an illusion. One person in particular was Ptolemy of Alexandria. Basically, in the second century, he believed that the Earth was in the center of the universe and did not move at all. Supposedly, the Sun, the Moon, planets and the stars revolved around the Earth. That is clearly not true. He didn't know better though.

Although Ptolemy's geocentric theory was wrong, it made others question it and prove it wrong. It probably sparked something in Nicolaus Copernicus. He believed that the planets orbited the Sun and the Moon orbited Earth, which is true. But, he also believed the Sun was the center of the universe and didn't move. That isn't true. So, Ptolemy and Copernicus lived in illusions, much like the prisoners from the cave. Later on, it was discovered that what Ptolemy and Copernicus believed wasn't true.

It is scary to know that I might be living in an illusion. My truth may be something that hasn't been discovered yet. I know the way the government works is an illusion. I just don't know the facts and thats scares me. It makes me ignorant and i need to know the truth.

Resources:
http://www.plusroot.com/dbook/09Illusion.html
http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/resources/explorations/groundup/lesson/basics/g37/

Blog 1: The Cave and I

Ignorance is not bliss. Therefore, living in a cave being completely oblivious from the truth doesn’t scream happiness to me. Knowledge is power. Knowing the truth is eye-opening. In Plato’s text, the prisoner who goes leaves the cave and goes into the light suffers from sharp pains. The truth hurts. When people’s outlook on the world is shattered, it is upsetting. No one wants to be told that all they’ve ever known was a lie.

Supposedly, being ignorant from the truth makes one feel safe and comfortable. To me, it’s never good to feel comfortable. How can you develop and grow as a human being if you’re comfortable with what you already know. Why not become more knowledgeable? It blows my mind when people say they’d rather not know something. It might hurt their feelings, but that’s how you become stronger as a person. I rather be heartbroken by the truth than be happy because of a lie.

For example, there are many tv shows, movies and books that have spouses cheating on each other with someone else. The cheater (let’s just say it’s a man) says has business to handle but actually goes out and does his dirty work. When he comes home back to his wife, he acts normal as if nothing has happened. The wife doesn’t suspect a thing because her husband is acting normal. Little does she know, he’s out with a bunch of women every weekend. The man is trying to save her heartache by keeping this information away from her. But is this really the right thing to do? I wouldn’t say so. If their love was really strong, he’d tell her the truth and possibly work things out. At first, the wife would be in denial because of how normal he would act when he would get home, but eventually, she would put two and two together and have the courage to act on it. No woman would say to her husband, “I wish you hadn’t told me. Now our marriage is going to fall apart.” I don’t know anyone who would say such a thing. They would want to know so that they could make the decision to stay and work it out or get a divorce. See, not knowing her husband was cheating is comfortable for the wife, but it isn’t the right way to live.

The truth can leave a huge impact on one’s life. Your whole outlook on life suddenly becomes extremely different. Change can absolutely be a great thing. In my past, there had been this one person who I was very close with and we told each other everything. She was basically an older sister to me. We were put into a certain predicament that I won’t go into detail with and in the blink of an eye, everything became different. She wasn’t the person who I thought she was. Our relationship hasn’t been the same since. Now she’s just a person I used to know; I don’t know her anymore. It took a long time for me to accept the fact that everything had changed so quickly. Letting go of someone who put a burden on my back was actually upsetting but I was relieved at the same time. I believe that when the truth changes everything, it is positive, even if the situation happened in a negative way. I even got “embrace change” tattooed on my arm. The truth will set you free. This sounds so cliché, but I definitely believe it.

Draft for Blog 1

Hey my name is Jasmine Hurtado. I'm 18 years young. I'm puerto rican & dominican. Yes, I'm a gemini. No, i don't have two personalities or am two-faced or anything else that relates to being a gemini. I don't like labels; I just am who I am. I'm pretty shy. It just depends on the situation. I've been dancing for about 10 years. I started out with ballet, tap & jazz. The movie Breakin really got me wanting to learn hip hop. I can't do what they do in that movie because I geared towards the choreography route & not actual hip hop dancing which is breakdancing. If I could find someone that could teach me and had the patience, that would be great. With that being said, I really appreciate hip hop culture. The elements include DJing, MCing, graffitti & bboying. I could go on for days talking about this. Hm, what else? I like writing poetry but that doesn't necessarily mean I'm good at it. There's always room for improvement. This is random but sadly for me, I've been the same height since I was 12. I want to grow. lol Last but not least, I'm addicted to twitter. When i first started, I told myself I wouldn't get to that point. Guess what? I got to that point.