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I've read so far. It towers hundreds of feet above wignall's weekly
rants. I think wignall should contact this author and humbly sit at his feet.
Read on:
The allegory of the cave
Louis Moyston
Monday, April 27, 2009
Most people, including ourselves,
live in a world of relative ignorance.
We are even comfortable with that
ignorance, because it is all we know.
When we first start facing truth, the
process may be frightening, and many
people run back to their old lives.
But if you continue to seek truth,
you will eventually be able to handle
it better. In fact, you want more!
- Plato's Republic
A recent discussion with a graduate student on matters concerning "slipping into darkness" sparked an interesting philosophical response. In the reply, the student said, "Sir that reminds me of Socrates' Allegory of the cave in Plato's Republic". I find the concept and of course some of the early (traditional) discourses on ideas of the good life, society and political leadership interesting and instructive. More interesting is the idea that a "good life" is directly related to the capacity of the political leadership to lead change. There is a consensus of views on "capacity building" and "anticipatory intelligence" among "traditional" and "contemporary" thinkers and philosophers on the nature of political leadership. It is important for us to review the nature of our society and political leadership from 1944 to date. We should ask ourselves: are we satisfied with our political leaders in terms of their capacity to lead change? If we are not satisfied, then what should we, the people, do? It appears that all that is needed to be a political leader in Jamaica is a lot of money, a "little colour", family and related connections. It is time for us to put our best foot forward.
When the ordinary citizens of Athens emerged as the new ruling class, the older noble families became their rivals. The history of democracy began. The sophists - a group of teachers emerged called the sophists (wise men) to teach the leaders how to get along and be successful in the world by way of public speaking and the art of winning arguments. Socrates countered this idea when he called for "a brave new world" in which kings will be philosophers and philosophers will become kings. This idea was elaborated by Plato who called for state-sponsored education and training for a special group in mathematics, psychology, economics and philosophy.
Locke and Rousseau saw political leaders as thinking persons who are servants of the people. Rousseau describes the political leader as the legislator, a person with a "mind of the highest order" and a super human, yet understanding human nature. This is indeed a very difficult order to meet, but the idea is clear and distinct - that political leadership is not a role for "anybody", so to speak.
In the allegoric tale the normal human condition is likened to that of living all the time in a cave where one is only able to see shadows cast on a wall by objects and light sources that are not visible. If one were chained in such a cave, looking only at the shadows, one's experience would be governed by a world of darkness and shadows and one would not realise that there were any other objects in the world. If released or escaped from the cave, at first he would be blinded by the light and would be unable to see the "real" objects, as clearly as possible as he had previously seen the shadows; he would be "dazzled by the light of truth". We must begin to creep out of the cave and respond to the light of truth about leadership in general and political leadership in particular.
I will portray the situation in Jamaica to the main theme of the allegoric tale with a particular difference from the Greco-European experience. The difference is our reality is not informed by the hypothetical "state of nature". We are linked to real situation - a history of slavery, conquest and colonisation. It may have been against this background that Norman Manley in 1939 identified the teachers and educators in this country as a vanguard class and called on them to assert their leadership in the wider community. It was the dark cloud of political tribalism that herded the people into their respective caves. In each cave those trapped are informed by the "shadows" of their realities and the manipulation of the "invisible hands" of the "puppeteers". In Party Politics in the West Indies, CLR James notes that it was the masses in the West Indies who fought every battle to make the societies more "participative", but the political leadership was taken over by a middle class that was ill-prepared; one that is not defective but mis-educated and lacking experience in the "productive spheres". Against this background, It is reasonable to argue that the political leadership in the West Indies is unable to lead change. In The world is flat, Thomas Friedman describes the amazement of the Americans when they discovered that a significant number of the members of the Chinese political leadership's background is in science and technology.
These leaders have the capacity to lead change and that is exactly what is happening in China. It can happen wherever there are leaders with the capacity to lead change. The liberation from the caves is desirable. A new civil society must now emerge in Jamaica to acquaint the people to a "brave new world" of ideas, and not the shadows and the "darkness" of political tribalism. Let us be "dazzled by the light of truth" and find a path to a good life!
thearchives01@yahoo.com
rants. I think wignall should contact this author and humbly sit at his feet.
Read on:
The allegory of the cave
Louis Moyston
Monday, April 27, 2009
Most people, including ourselves,
live in a world of relative ignorance.
We are even comfortable with that
ignorance, because it is all we know.
When we first start facing truth, the
process may be frightening, and many
people run back to their old lives.
But if you continue to seek truth,
you will eventually be able to handle
it better. In fact, you want more!
- Plato's Republic
A recent discussion with a graduate student on matters concerning "slipping into darkness" sparked an interesting philosophical response. In the reply, the student said, "Sir that reminds me of Socrates' Allegory of the cave in Plato's Republic". I find the concept and of course some of the early (traditional) discourses on ideas of the good life, society and political leadership interesting and instructive. More interesting is the idea that a "good life" is directly related to the capacity of the political leadership to lead change. There is a consensus of views on "capacity building" and "anticipatory intelligence" among "traditional" and "contemporary" thinkers and philosophers on the nature of political leadership. It is important for us to review the nature of our society and political leadership from 1944 to date. We should ask ourselves: are we satisfied with our political leaders in terms of their capacity to lead change? If we are not satisfied, then what should we, the people, do? It appears that all that is needed to be a political leader in Jamaica is a lot of money, a "little colour", family and related connections. It is time for us to put our best foot forward.
When the ordinary citizens of Athens emerged as the new ruling class, the older noble families became their rivals. The history of democracy began. The sophists - a group of teachers emerged called the sophists (wise men) to teach the leaders how to get along and be successful in the world by way of public speaking and the art of winning arguments. Socrates countered this idea when he called for "a brave new world" in which kings will be philosophers and philosophers will become kings. This idea was elaborated by Plato who called for state-sponsored education and training for a special group in mathematics, psychology, economics and philosophy.
Locke and Rousseau saw political leaders as thinking persons who are servants of the people. Rousseau describes the political leader as the legislator, a person with a "mind of the highest order" and a super human, yet understanding human nature. This is indeed a very difficult order to meet, but the idea is clear and distinct - that political leadership is not a role for "anybody", so to speak.
In the allegoric tale the normal human condition is likened to that of living all the time in a cave where one is only able to see shadows cast on a wall by objects and light sources that are not visible. If one were chained in such a cave, looking only at the shadows, one's experience would be governed by a world of darkness and shadows and one would not realise that there were any other objects in the world. If released or escaped from the cave, at first he would be blinded by the light and would be unable to see the "real" objects, as clearly as possible as he had previously seen the shadows; he would be "dazzled by the light of truth". We must begin to creep out of the cave and respond to the light of truth about leadership in general and political leadership in particular.
I will portray the situation in Jamaica to the main theme of the allegoric tale with a particular difference from the Greco-European experience. The difference is our reality is not informed by the hypothetical "state of nature". We are linked to real situation - a history of slavery, conquest and colonisation. It may have been against this background that Norman Manley in 1939 identified the teachers and educators in this country as a vanguard class and called on them to assert their leadership in the wider community. It was the dark cloud of political tribalism that herded the people into their respective caves. In each cave those trapped are informed by the "shadows" of their realities and the manipulation of the "invisible hands" of the "puppeteers". In Party Politics in the West Indies, CLR James notes that it was the masses in the West Indies who fought every battle to make the societies more "participative", but the political leadership was taken over by a middle class that was ill-prepared; one that is not defective but mis-educated and lacking experience in the "productive spheres". Against this background, It is reasonable to argue that the political leadership in the West Indies is unable to lead change. In The world is flat, Thomas Friedman describes the amazement of the Americans when they discovered that a significant number of the members of the Chinese political leadership's background is in science and technology.
These leaders have the capacity to lead change and that is exactly what is happening in China. It can happen wherever there are leaders with the capacity to lead change. The liberation from the caves is desirable. A new civil society must now emerge in Jamaica to acquaint the people to a "brave new world" of ideas, and not the shadows and the "darkness" of political tribalism. Let us be "dazzled by the light of truth" and find a path to a good life!
thearchives01@yahoo.com
willi, sometimes when my son asks me to help him with homework i will ask him what does he understand his task to be and the rules governing the task...you can always tell when he doesn't understand the rules (hence my need to help him) as he tries to repeat what he thought was said and cannot explain or describe it in his own words....
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