‘The Allegory of the Cave’ was an interesting concept that was brought up in the lecture. This allegory was essentially about the people living in a cave who were isolated from the outside world. These people were trapped and the only image they could see was shadows. One day, a cave-dweller released from the chains confining him and escaped to the outside world. It was there he saw many wonders (this relates to the cyber world). However when he returned to tell the others of his newly discovered findings, they refused to believe him, and labelled him as an outcast. This allegory reminded me of an article I read online about how companies like Blockbuster and Borders are currently in bankruptcy, because they couldn’t compete with the rise of the online market. Borders lost much of their revenue to Amazon (internet megastore) which sells the most e-books online and Blockbuster to Netflix, a highly successful web company that allows its users to view movies anytime anywhere, especially online. Like the people living in the cave, Blockbuster and Borders refused to evolve and merge into the online market. So needless to say, they got themselves in this unfortunate position and a substantial amount of debt. An example of Blockbuster’s supposed ignorance: Blockbuster declined partnership with the starting, baby company Netflix in 2002, who now dominates entertainment (movies, TV shows) in the virtual world. So in order to strive in business you must learn to adapt, because technology and the internet plays a major role on how this society operates. And as a race, we evolve overtime. In this sense, business becomes an extension of our humanity, as we are constantly trying to look for ways on improving ourselves and the lives of others. However, that being said, if major businesses decide to emerge to different types of markets, they might end up dominating the entire world, choose Google for example. Google has consistently extended it's market, even going as far as knowing someone's blood-type, thus being labelled the 'anti-Christ' -- since too much knowledge can be deemed dangerous.
References
Kreis, S. 2004, Plato: The Allegory of the Cave, viewed 17th August 2012 <http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/allegory.html>
Very interesting concept indeed. Anyways, just thought I'd drop a comment since I find your blogs rather amusing(:
ReplyDeleteCoincidentally, a few months back, a smart cookie once told me about this exact same story about the Plato's cave. Basically, she told me that she believed that we should always question our existence, and albeit -if we don't end up finding answers. We must must also use logic and reasoning to back our own theories. I respected and considered her beliefs, thus applying what I've learnt from her knowledge that she shared with me, hence opening my eyes to the the world to the "knowledge all around me" and "what I do with it is my choice"
Okay, now analysing the things you've mentioned in this blog in regards to both companies such as Blockbuster & borders in terms of "logic and reasoning". You depicted the relation between those cave dwellers in correlation to companies such as blockbuster & Borders. Now in terms of basic reasoning & logical/rational consistency based on this blog. I totally agree with your point of the fact that in order to strive in BUSINESS, we must learn to adapt to technology and the internet as a means for becoming accustomed to an extention of humanity, for after all, it is a part of human nature to strive and find ways to improve ourselves and aswell as other lives to maintain the credibility and sustainability of mankind.
Now, referring to the story of plato's allegory of the cave, this is a perfect example of what we can use as our source of "knowledge" that is all "around" us that we have a CHOICE to acquire. But the danger in acquiring too much knowledge, leads to POWER, and with too much POWER leads to all sorts of things which could also ironically lead to ignorance. With plato's allegory, we can also observe that it is based on one man's experience that has been passed down from generation to generation, for us to acquire knowledge of, not to apply the exact same scenario in our lives, but to use these experiences of others as a basis for a "learning curve"- so in hindsight view of this story, I can also observe that although the cave dwellers may appear to be "ignorant", now from the philosopher's "experience", it lead him no choice but to base his justifications on his own beliefs about the external world on a firm inner conviction, thus having an "open-minded" opinion. Now, the inconsistency with this story is that both counter-parties, the philosopher & the cave dwellers, respectively, had obviously opposed each other's beliefs and opinions, hence, creating "imbalance" in the world. In a nutshell, the moral of this story could also be about basically the lack of maintaining "balance" in humanity by means of "mutual understanding", but if it were applied to reality, more and more people seem to be more open-minded nowadays - and our minds have developed in ways of understanding and learning from experiences such as plato's allegory, hence, to avoid the mistake of the cave dweller's "closed-minded" attitude. Now the bottom line to my main point is, that although knowledge is ALSO a good thing (as plato demonstrated), like I've mentioned in the beginning of this paragraph, too much power could also ironically lead to "ignorance", hence, I guess the only way now in today's society to maintain order and "balance" within "one's life" at least, we must first acquire wisdom - which is basically the amount of knowledge we choose to take in, as to live a healthy and life-fulfilling purpose. For the main purpose of knowledge is there to just help us gain the necessary needs for maintaining our choice of how we want to live our lives - ie; By logical reasoning - it serves as a basis for helping you making a living. As opposed to wisdom - which basically helps you MAKE a life = hence, by combining and applying both our knowledge and wisdom and as well as our experiences, from there we can help restore BALANCE in today's world. And it is up to us to find the truth, although "some" may have already found it. They probably just don't realise that it's been in front of them the whole time. Anyways, just thought I'd share my unsolicited opinion for this story has opened up my mind quite a lot in regards to the reality of this world. Thank you for sharing this (:
ReplyDeleteNice blog! Have a good day Miss Kassandra.