Medias Influece On Our Perception Essay - 661 Words

Many times people do not like to get out of their comfort zones and try new things. Many years ago Plato created an experiment which would not be possible to recreate; he wrote a story called the Allegory of the Cave. In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave prisoners are chained together facing a wall only to see the shadows created by the prison guard and only to hear the echoes of their own voices. One prisoner was let out of the cave to observe the reality and inform the other prisoners who were in the cave. When the prisoner described the reality to the others, they did not want to believe it and killed the experienced prisoner. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave describes the very nature of human beings. Plato argues that there is a flaw in how we†¦show more content†¦For example, people often believe that all Muslims are terrorists, or that all Christians are evangelical preachers. Neither of these beliefs are true, mater of fact, they are only stereotypes. We tend to believe what we see on the news or as previously stated in the movies. Today everyone believes in some kind of stereotype. Stereotypes are always used to portray a certain type of person, nationality or religion. For example, when people think of blondes they imagine a person who is incapable of understanding the slightest knowledge, or when one thinks of a person who is from Iraq they automatically imagine a Muslim terrorist that they have seen on the media. The media in our world today represents the fire that is in the Plato’s Allegory of the cave, which was used to cast shadows, illustrating the unrealistic images and stereotypes of items and people. In today’s world we need to break away from the â€Å"wall†, stereotypes and fight our way past the fire and out to the world to see things as they really are. We need to reeducate ourselves in order for us to see the reality. We need to learn to believe the reality about various ideas. We need to understand the different cultures around us and learn to accept them. We need to stop criticizing others for their religious beliefs. We also need to clean minds and learn the difference between stereotypes and reality so that we do not allow the stereotypes to drag us back to the wall and the ways of stereotypical