After watching Allegory of the cave, it made me think a lot about how exactly it plays into our study of leadership. I had to rewatch the video again and break down some of the different things that Plato was trying to explain. I believe that by putting those prisoners in a world where they only know one thing is similar to how people in our world can be sheltered and we only know as much as we’ve experienced and thus were are in a bubble essentially. It’s an interesting concept to think that everything that we know is just how we have perceived things through our socialization factors and we could be looking at things in the wrong way. This can include our parents, media, school, peers, etc. Plato also brings up the idea of idolizing those who excel in something we think we understand. This made me think of the great man theory and the idea that we believe that certain qualities make one person superior because of the way we perceive society and the way that we believe that we should act. While I believe as a society that we are moving in the right direction, it’s hard to really understand what is right versus wrong.
Allegory of the cave also reminded me of the question of how we define morals and ethics. Of course, as a human, we have this conception that preservation of life is good and soo is progress however that is just in the scope of what our minds can comprehend. We also agree that death is bad and we want to bring about happiness as much as possible, however, our definitions only apply to humans and the way that we understand things.
The debate over what is “right” vs. what is “wrong” is very subjective, and the Allegory of the Cave is an interesting metaphor to illustrate the sheltering nature of many human societies– a significant example being within the family unit. When parents and guardians ingrain certain ideas into their kids’ heads, it can be difficult for kids to break free of their parents’ morals and make their own decisions. This applies to our studies of leadership because as followers and leaders decide what is “ethical” vs. “unethical”, we can trace their decisions back to the isolating ways they were socialized.
I liked how you related Plato’s analogy to the concept of being sheltered in our society. I think it is really important that we recognize that and consciously make an effort to put ourselves in “other people’s shoes” in order to address our own biases and perceptions.