Plato & Neo vs. The System

In similar although different contexts, virtual spaces that were represented through Plato’s cave was the underground den and in the Matrix the embedded code within the matrix. These virtual spaces provoked the same questions, anxieties, and responses of Plato and Neo’s discussions/experiences within both settings. Plato questioned the necessary curriculum a person required in order to become the savior or leader of society. He had to revert to the essential subjects such as arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy to not only realize that knowledge is power and power is knowledge but that this is was what the “savior” required in order to save humanity. In respect, the public was being deceived by the government of that time because they were embedded by subliminal messages they had constructed for the public. This was also Neo’s case but situated in a different time and place known as the future. Neo questioned the basis of reality through transcribed code. He became challenged by the system that kept him constricted to the ordinary lifestyle in the real world. He also had to realize that the constructed world he lived in was only an illusion to keep him from the “truth” (the answers to destroying the system and prosper in a utopia) and restrict him to one possible reality. I believe that in The Republic and The Matrix they both reference the Media age as a deceiving imposter that blinds us or keeps us away from the “truth,” maybe not a utopian society but another lifestyle that frees us from constricting rules and laws. As for the alternative to the red pill for escaping The Matrix, I believe that being able to realize that there is an overwhelming control of the system is enough to feel liberated, at least for now…