Caves and Chains

Artistic expressions, while appealing to our aesthetic sense, also influence our epistemic and ethical frames and views. They have the potential of triggering or catalysing thoughts that shape us. The Matrix was a movie that has become a part of cinema history as a cult work in its genre. It was fun but it also explored some deep ideas with amazing profundity, subtlety and style. The ideas have parallels in some philosophical works. The most widely discussed are the parallels between The Matrix and “parable of the cave” in Plato's The Republic.

In The Republic, during a dialogue with Glaucon, Socrates talks about an imaginary cave wherein people are chained in such a way that they can see only a wall on which shadows are being projected by someone. They can’t see anything beyond that wall and they don’t understand anything beyond what they see. They have no standards superior to or exterior to their own mere visual experiences. This existence depends entirely on the immediate sensory perceptions and is thus exposed to the vulnerabilities and limitations of the senses. The plugged-in people lead a similar existence in the programmed dream world created by the machines in The Matrix. In a way, probably the shackles represent our senses and our societal bounding, which don’t let us rise above the planes and pains of materiality.

In The Matrix, there is a sequence where Neo is released from his programmed dream world and faces the truth. A similar point of salience occurs in the parable as well, but it is about the first man who comes out. It so happens that one day a man is able to get rid of the chains, walk out of the cave and sees the world outside. He has a hard time believing what he sees, but he comes to believe it. Back in the cave, other people are busy conferring honors among themselves on those who were the quickest to observe the passing shadows and to remark which of them went before, and which followed after, and which were together; and who were therefore best able to draw conclusions as to the future. The man who walked out wouldn’t care for such honors and glories, or envy the possessors of them. He would choose to endure anything, rather than live as the people in the cave. Now, imagine if such a man was to go back to the cave (or The Matrix) and tell other people about what he has seen.

Coming back into the cave, his eyes would not be easily accustomed to the darkness (i.e. ignorance) in the cave and thus, his eyes would not become steady for some time. This would make him appear ridiculous or inferior to those who have their eyes accustomed to the darkness. In fact, people may even think of him as a lunatic; and if he tries to lead others into the same light, they could even go to the extent of trying to catch and punish him. Thus, this man is likely to meet with disbelief, ridicule and/or hate at the hands of the people living in the darkness of the cave, the people he seeks to help. Even if he is able to lead one of the chained men into light, he may not be able to convince them to choose the light of the real world over the darkness of the cave. Some, like Cypher, may still prefer the convenience of darkness to the inconvenience of light. Even Neo resists the reality.

Neo’s immediate response is predictable. People's fear of what they don’t understand takes many forms, like disbelief, ridicule, hatred, or blind faith. But, Neo accepts the truth. In The Republic, Socrates says that bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes: either from coming out of the light or from going into the light. This is true of the mind's eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye. A person who knows the possibility of the existence of both the bewilderments, on seeing any one whose vision is perplexed and weak, will first enquire about its cause. Neo displays the ability to tell the difference between the bewilderments and he has the wisdom that results from such ability and its use. He, like any sincere skeptic, looks for some evidence before he believes.

Cypher's choice of convenience of a slave over the hardships of freedom is not unusual. For many people, nothing matters except how good their lives feel through their senses. Freedom is difficult to deal with, a human condition that manifests in many ways, like subservience to totalitarianism, blind faith in religion, and so on. How to deal with true freedom? I don't know. It’s anyway not important to get answers immediately, let alone the right answers. It’s important to raise questions, the right kind of questions, and live with them till the answers reveal themselves.