Eduard Abroyan
Instructor: Teddy Chocos
Freshmen English 102
02/25/2013
Both Percy and Plato speak about “blindness” in varied forms.
Is it better to be blind or enlightened and why?
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In our life where were, where are and where will be dichotomies which concern great
thinkers and academics. From ancient time till nowadays the issues like society
justice, blindness and being enlightened, choices and reasons of being enlightened or
blind are raised by famous philosopher and writers. In my essay I am writing about
diverse forms of ‘blindness’ and the preferences and motives of being blind or
enlightened based on the ideas expressed in the “The Allegory of The Cave” by Plato
and “The Loss of The Creature” by Walker Percy. In the first part of the paper I
presented the views and thoughts of being blind in the vision of Plato and Percy.
Advantages and disadvantages were presented with an attempt to answer the stated
question.
Plato was born in 428-347 B.C.E. in the family of aristocrats and quite wealthy
people. He was given proper education according to that time and eventually he
became a student of Socrates and was involved in works and teaching. They lived in
the hard time for thinkers – the government of Athens was defeated and taken by
tyrants of Sparta and Socrates was sentenced to death. Plato had founded the academy
in an olive grove in Athens, which endured for almost a thousand years.
Plato uses the special technique of writing such as allegory: rhetorical method of
expressing the things and actions in another context. Likewise, Plato shows the
technique of dialogue that is also was in the work we were discussing. Moreover,
Plato has the technique of question-and-answer, which is basically assumed from
Socrates. Plato’s thoughts were valued and a lot of people followed his teaching and
points.
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In “The Allegory of The Cave” Plato discusses the character and situation in the cave
and in the “upper world” representing his ideas and thoughts about darkness and
enlightenment. According to Plato there are different forms of blindness. One of the
forms of blindness is described as a human inability to expose the situations in a
greater extent not having the full scene and vision. Human beings who live in the cave
since their childhood are described as “ chained so that they cannot move, and can
only see before them”(868). They are prisoners of the den and darkness who cannot
see the things appropriately and their perception of everything around is based only
on the shadows and distorted voices they are able to see and hear. Hereby, Plato
maybe wants to highlight the situation and environment when people do not have the
full picture of the things going around and their perception is deceptive.
Later Plato explains the other kind of blindness when some prisoners dare to escape
from the den towards the light and new responsibilities. This type of blindness is the
temporary blindness before getting fully enlightened and fully adjusted to the sun and
a new world. “When he approaches the light his eyes will be dazzled, and he will not
be able to see anything at all of what are now called realities”(869).
We see another type of blindness described by Plato if the former prisoner somehow
returns to the den. His vision becomes much worse after enlightenment and he cannot
see because of excess of light. So the conclusion is “The eyes may be blind in two
ways, by excess or defect of light”. As I described above the similar ideas and
concerns towards the problem of blindness are represented by Walker Percy in his
essay named “ The Loss of The Creature”. Being born in a family of talented and
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educated people, Percy’s life was not the one someone would call nice. At the age of
12, Percy was a witness of his father suicide and two years later his mother died. It is
hard to even imagine how in this awkward stage of adolescence these losses affect
poor boy. That is the scar on his heart and mind for the rest of his life. Therefore,
these life factors could be the reason of such deep thinking and analyzing of any
creature existence and life philosophies. In his above-mentioned essay Percy presents
very deep and philosophical approach towards the human sovereignty and the forms
of its deprivation which we can safely equal to the concept of blindness. Unlike Plato
Percy never mentioned the word ‘blindness’ and spoke about the concepts and ideas
of how human beings acquire knowledge or perceptions meanwhile loosing their
sovereignty and becoming consumer of ‘pre-packed’ experiences and feelings. He
somehow equals this ‘certified experience’ and knowledge to the blindness imposed
on people by experts and theorists. He stated that a layman surrenders the sovereignty
and takes up” the role not of the person but of the consumer” thus we can interpret
that he acquires ‘that’ blindness. Percy’s examples range from sightseers to students
in laboratory who all get in to a fatal gap between the real life and what is mend to be
learnt. “ The reader may also be content to judge a life by whether it has or has not
been formulated by those who know and write about life” People in general become
blind receivers.
Having all these descriptions and analysis about the blindness according to Plato and
Percy we now should attempt to the central question of the topic: in it better to be
blind or enlightened and why? Let’s consider both options. On one hand being blind
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provides one stability and easy-going lifestyle without any serious problems, efforts
and doubts. Others lead you and you always can blame them for your failure without
taking responsibilities even for your life and actions. We do not know and we do not
even question about whatever we see are real or fake shadow of the reality. ”It is the
mistaking an idea, a principal, an abstraction, for the real”. We go sightseeing
receiving prepared information and services for our convenience. Everything is
decided and managed for us and we surrender or sovereignty “to a class of privileged
knowers”. Being blind we receive all the necessary information “in certain package”
from the main channels of TV and mass media for example about the ‘necessity’ of
war in Vietnam or Iraq, about ‘glories’ of communism or ‘advantages’ nuclear
weapon program. Brands, fashion and multinational corporations dictate us what to
want, wish, buy and eventually how to be happy and we do not need to think too
much. We do not need to adjust our sight, fix our eyes to get out from the cave.
Hence, it is all up to us to make a choice.
From the other hand if we choose to become enlightened we choose the thorny way of
life, leaving “the beaten track”, taking a challenge of being responsible for not only
our own life but for life of others.
Many activists around the world in any time have been withdrawing from the restful
life in the search of the wisdom and enlightenment, disseminating knowledge, “care
and providence of others” to make the world a better place. “ … the idea of good
appears last of all and seen only with an effort ”(871). Activists as Martin Luther
King, Indira Gandhi, George Washington, Nelson Mandela had seen the darkness of
the den and acquired the habit to see in the upper world descending back and
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becoming able to see “the beautiful and good in their truth”. Their lives were not easy
entailing constant challenges, obstacles and even dangers. We cannot safely say or be
sure why people choose to be blind or enlightened. Many factors can influence the
decision. Family values, the environment around us, the society where we leave, the
education we obtain can be the factors bringing about our own choices of the life
path. In my opinion there is no one and certain answer for the question whether it is
better to be blind or enlightened applicable for everybody. As far as I am concerned
being enlightened means being alive, struggling for the truth and justice. And I fully
agree that “… unless the person struggles for himself, unless he knows that there is a
struggle, he is going to be just what the planners think what he is”(6).
Both Plato and Percy described states of human being which can be summarized as
being blind. Plato mentioned various kinds of “blindness” which could be applicable
for any century, any place. Percy’s ideas of “blindness” are quite similar to Plato’s
bearing that touch of the times. Being blind carries a lot of ‘conveniences’ and easy
ways. Meanwhile, being enlightened bears extra responsibilities, difficulties and even
dangers. We came to the conclusion that there is no one universal answer to the
question if it is better “to be or not to be”. It is even more complicated to answer to
the question “why” as different factors affect people’s choices and preferences.
Bibliography:
1. Lee A. Jacobus, “A World Of Ideas”, BEDFORDS/ST. MARTINS, Boston;
New York, Plato “The Allegory of the Cave” (865-877).
2. Walker Percy “The Loss of The Creature”