In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, prisoners are chained to the wall of a cave. The only thing they can see is the shadows on the wall, so they believe this to be reality because it’s all they have ever known. Socrates suggests that if one of the prisoners were to break free, see the real world, and share what he saw with the other prisoners, the other prisoners would reject his ideas and try to kill him. This idea reminded me of a conversation in my Justice and Civil Society class yesterday about how one of the reasons why issues like racism and sexism are so difficult to overcome is that it is extremely difficult to challenge such widely held opinions that have been around for a long time. Even if they are trying to make society better, people who challenge the status quo usually face a lot of resistance.
Something that I found very interesting in both the Mabey and Gardner articles is that the authors both argued that the perceived separation between leaders and followers, and the idea that people in positions of authority are automatically leaders, is actually an obstacle to solving problems. If the leader does not understand the needs of their followers, and the followers believe that the leader is the only one who can make change, then the group will have a lot of trouble getting things done. Mabey says that in order to change this idea, “socialization in homes and schools must include the recognition that every citizen will lead. Civic participation is not an elective but a given. Every person matters.” I think that if kids are taught this in school, then they will eventually take a more active role in causes they believe in because they believe that they have the ability to make change even if they are not ever in a position of authority.
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