I mentioned last time that I would be posting about this book I am teaching. Ishmael, By Daniel Quinn is a book that looks at our culture and civilization through the eyes of a telepathic gorilla. Once you get past that little bit (meaning you accept that gorillas can be highly intelligent teachers) (oh yea.. little bit... get it?) the conversation really takes off and plows through SOOO much about who we are and how we got to be this way. As a culture I mean... how did we come to view ourselves as separate from the rest of the planet, here to dominate and conquer, here to make our own rules and follow little other wisdom.
So I am beginning to teach the book by introducing a wonderful tale told by an ancient master. Plato, in The Republic, tells the tale of a group of people chained in a cave. Plato's Allegory is a very insightful tale, as you might imagine coming from such a thinker. The folks in the allegory can only look in one direction, in front of them is a wall on to which shadows are cast, behind them a great fire and a runway for puppeteers to cast shadows on the wall. This image has many versions but they all demonstrate the basic idea.
The high school lesson that I will be hoping to impart is that the captives here relate to the shadows on the wall and the echoes of their captives as the real thing, which they are not. They know nothing else so they are bound to make the only connections there to make... they do not know that they do not know. Truth is not possible for them, not until they are freed from their captivity and able to "turn into the light" and see the error of their understanding.
Plato's point to his young student is that philosophy allows man to turn into the light and see the truth of their existence. My point to my students is that this book, I hope, will make a very simple truth clear to them. Not only do they share much with the captives in Plato's tale, they also have the chance now to see the civilization they are part of for what it is, and act accordingly. I'll keep you posted. Get it?
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