Plato Lectures Ronald Regan on the Media

Allegory of the Media-Prison

[Socrates]                    And now, let me show in a figure how far our politics are enlightened or unenlightened.  Look!  Human beings living in a free society, in which they have movement in the light and freedom throughout their country.  Here they have been from their childhood, and receive their news, which is owned by wealthy private parties, and broadcasts from distant cities, so that they can see only what political and economic policies are on their television.  These events are typically accompanied by dramatic music and videos, and reported in one minute blurbs, in succession.

[Ronald Reagan]           I see.

[Socrates]                    And do you see, images passing across the media stage, all sorts of figures of people and places, with statistical charts, and commentary?

[Ronald Reagan]           You have shown me a strange image, and they are strange prisoners, ah, I mean citizens.
                                            
[Socrates]                    Like ourselves; and they see only the images on the media; the reporters, politicians, talking heads, and statistical charts on their television?

[Ronald Regan]            True, how could they see anything but the images approved by the wealthy media owners, since the only images they see come through the television?

[Socrates]                    And of the real-world sources for the images, the people, places, politicians, talking heads, data for the statistical charts, and even most of his fellow citizens, they would only see the media images?

[Ronald Regan]            Yes, he said.

[Socrates]                    And if they were able to converse with one another, by cell phone, facebook, and twitter, would they not agree that they were seeing real summaries of political and economic proposals, actual debates, and accurate results of current policies?

[Ronald Regan]            Very true.

[Socrates]                    And suppose further, that the media images presented certain interviews with people introduced as ordinary citizens, qualified experts, and professionals.  Would they not be sure to fancy when one of these interviews appears that they are witness to corroborating evidence and proofs of those political and economic assessments?

[Ronald Regan]            No question, he replied.

 [Socrates]                   To them, the truth would be literally nothing but the media images.

[Ronald Regan]            That is certain.

[Socrates]                    And now look again, and see what will naturally follow if the prisoners are released of their error.  At first, when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stop viewing the media only, and travel round and talk with politicians, and court officials, and college professors, not neglecting the mounds of available data, he will suffer sharp pains; the volume of information will distress him, and he will be unable to grasp all of the realities of which in his former state he had seen the media images.  And then conceive of someone saying to him, that what he saw before was a series of illusions, but that now, when he is approaching nearer to truth, he has a clearer vision.  What will be his reply?  And you may further imagine that his instructor is presenting him the sources of the information reported on the media, the court records, economic data, and analysis, and requiring him to study them, will he not be perplexed?  Will he not fancy that the exciting media reports which he formerly saw are truer than the mounds of mundane information, textbooks, and records which are now shown to him?

[Ronald Regan]            Far truer.

[Socrates]                    And if he is compelled to study day and night, will he not have pain in his eyes which will make him turn away to find again the media images which he can deal with, and which he still wishes to be clearer than the things which are now being shown to him?

[Ronald Regan]            True.

[Socrates]                    And suppose once more, that he is reluctantly dragged far and wide, to the third world and held fast until he’s forced into the presence of reality itself, is he not likely to be pained and irritated?  Will he not even now suppose that what he sees is too horrific, too distant from what he was previously shown to be real?  Can he make a transition as such, all at once?

[Ronald Regan]            Not all in a moment, he said.

[Socrates]                    He will need to grow accustomed to the sight of the third world, the starvation and oppression, weapons sales and assassinations, genocide and rapes.  At first he will see caricatures of people, and then he will begin to understand, little by little, the accounts of real people from various places in the oppressed world, and will first be able to understand their account, than the meaning of economic data and government records?

[Ronald Regan]            Certainly.

[Socrates]                    Last of all he will be able to understand the economic data and corresponding gaps between it and statements reported in the media by politicians and talking heads, but he will eventually see the proper order of things, and will contemplate things as they are?

[Ronald Regan]            Certainly.

[Socrates]                    And when he remembered his old habitations, and the wisdom of the media prison, and his fellow citizens, do you not suppose that he would congratulate himself on the change, and pity them?

[Ronald Regan]            Certainly, he would.

[Socrates]                    And if they were in the habit of conferring honors among themselves on those who were sharpest to define the passing media images and to remark which of them were most important, and which were the up and coming issues of tomorrow and of the coming election, do you think that he would care for such honors and glories, or envy the possessors of them?  Would he not say with Homer,

“Better to be the poor servant of a poor master, and to endure anything, rather than think as they do and live after their manner?”

[Ronald Regan]            Yes, he said, I think that he would rather suffer anything than entertain these false notions and live in this miserable manner.

[Socrates]                    Imagine once more, such a one coming suddenly out of the real world to be replaced in his old situation; would he not be certain to have his eyes full of darkness?

[Ronald Regan]            To be sure, he said.

[Socrates]                    And if there were a contest, and he had to compete in commenting on the media images and statistical data with the prisoners, ah, I mean citizens, who had never moved out of the media prison, while his wits were still weak, and before he could think of how to relate what he has seen, would he not be ridiculous?  Men would say of him that out he went and back he came without his eyes; and that it was better not even to think of leaving in such a way; and if any one tried to loose another and lead him out into the world, they would shun him as a fool.

[Ronald Regan]            No question, he said.

[Socrates]                    This entire allegory, I said, you may now append, dear Ronald, to the previous argument; the media prison is the world of propaganda and special interests, and you will not misapprehend me if you interpret the journey out to be the ascent of the citizen into the intellectual world, including, but not limited to, direct observation on the condition of his fellow men, mounds of factual data, and interaction at the universities.  Whether true or false, my opinion is that in the world of knowledge and hard information the idea of truth appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort, and when seen, must be the universal object of every man’s duty, and the immediate source of action in the individual as well as society, and that these are the truths upon which he who would act rationally, either in public or private life must have his eye fixed.

[Ronald Regan]            I agree, as far as I am able to understand you.

[Socrates]                    Moreover, you must not wonder that those who experience this troubling and real vision are unwilling to descend to human affairs; for their souls are ever hastening into the intellectual world where they desire to dwell, which desire of theirs is very natural, but compels them to uncomfortable, even dangerous, life-changing actions, if our allegory is to be trusted.

[Ronald Regan]            Yes, of course.

[Socrates]                    And there is another thing, that neither the uneducated and uninformed of the truth, nor those who never make an end of their education, are able ministers of State.  Not the former, because they have no single aim of duty which is self-control, in all their actions, private as well as public. Not the latter, because they will not act at all except upon compulsion, fancying that they are already dwelling apart in the islands of the blest.

[Ronald Regan]            Very true, he replied.

[Socrates]                    Then, the duty of us, who bestow or withhold the consent of the governed, will be to compel the best minds to attain that knowledge which we have already shown to be the greatest of all.  They must continue to ascend until they arrived at the good; but when they have ascended and seen enough we must not allow them to do as they do now.

[Ronald Regan]            What do you mean?

[Socrates]                    I mean that they remain in their own isolated world.  This must not be allowed; they must be made to come again among the media prisoners.

[Ronald Regan]            But is not this unjust?  Ought we to give them a worse life, when they might have a better?

[Socrates]                    You have forgotten that the intention of the legislator should never have aimed at making any one class in the State happy above the rest.  They once held the citizens together by persuasion and necessity, making them benefactors of the State, and therefore benefactors of one another.

[Ronald Regan]            True, he said, I had forgotten.

 [Socrates]                   Observe, Ronald, that there is no injustice in forcefully compelling our politicians and officials to have a care to the provision of others.  Are they self-taught, that they cannot be expected to show any gratitude for a culture which they have never received?  No.  We, the people have brought them, yourself included, along to be rulers of the hive, kings of yourselves and of the other citizens, and have educated you far better and more perfectly than they have been educated, and you are better able to share in the double duty.  Wherefore each of you, when his turn comes, must go down to the general underground abode, and get the habit of seeing in the dark.  When you have acquired the habit, you will see ten thousand times better than the inhabitants of the media prison, and you will know what the distorted images are, and what they represent, because you have seen the beautiful and just and good in their truth.  And thus our State which is also yours will be a reality, and not a dream only, and will be administered in a spirit unlike that of other States, in which men fight with one another about illusions and are distracted in the struggle for power.  The truth is that the State in which the rulers are most reluctant to govern is always the best and most quietly governed, and the State in which they are most eager, the worst.

[Ronald Regan]            Amazing, but quite true, he replied.

[Socrates]                    And will our students and interns, when they hear of this, refuse to take their turn at the labors of State, when they are allowed to live under the benefits of a growing Republic?

[Ronald Regan]            Impossible, he answered; for they are fair men, and the commands which we impose upon them are just; there can be no doubt that those who follow will take up the challenge as a stern necessity, and not after the fashion of our present rulers of State.

[Socrates]                    Yes, and there lies the point.  You must contrive for your future rulers a different and better life than that which exists under the present status quo incumbents, and then you may have a well-ordered State; for only in the State which offers this, will they rule who are truly rich, not in silver and gold, but in virtue and wisdom, which are the true blessings of life.  Whereas if they go to the administration of public affairs, poor and hungering after their own private advantage, thinking that henceforth they are to snatch the chief good, there can and will be no order.  They will fight about office, and the civil and domestic imbroglio which thus arises will be the ruin of the rulers themselves and of the whole State.

[Ronald Regan]            Most true, he replied.

[Socrates]                    Who then are those whom we shall compel to be the guardians of the Republic?  Surely they will be the men who are wisest about affairs of State, and by whom the State is best administered, and who at the same time, have other honors and a separate and better life than that of politics?  Or shall we choose only those who make politics their one and only profession?

[Ronald Regan]            Nay, the former, they are the ones, and I will choose them.

[Socrates]                    And now shall we consider in what way such guardians will be produced, and how they are to be brought from darkness to light?

[Ronald Regan]            By all means, he replied.

[Socrates]                    The process, I said, is not as simple as turning over a ravioli, but the turning round of a soul, passing from a kind of day which is little better than night to the true day of actual being, the liberation from the darkened prison into the real world around us, regardless of the difficulties?

 [Ronald Regan]           Quite so.