Optical Allusionist

In Plato's "Allegory of the Cave", a segment from his Republic, he addresses a key problem in society. Reality, particularly painful realities, have become taboo. Most citizens today live on in an optimistic world of illusionary pleasure and false protection. Few know that the only way to defeat a problem (because problems do arise when reality is ignored) is to look it straight in the eye.
Plato begins his allegory by explaining to his audience where the greater portion of humanity lies: in a cave, chained to a wall, only glimpsing shadows- reflections of an outside world. Those chained pass their time arguing over, analyzing, and describing the shadows, assuming that 1) because they are the only thing they have seen with their own eyes, the shadows are as real as the rocks of the cave, that 2) by analyzing the shadows, they are attacking reality, or the problems the shadows represent, and that 3) because everyone is talking about the shadows, the popular opinion is correct, making the shadows all the more real.
Society has held down humanity with its chains, fettering our heads and necks, limiting our peripheral vision. But what if something happened to break the chains, jolt the neck braces, and cast off our blinders? There are those who will then stretch their joints, and follow the source of the shadows. Others will continue to sit and stare, not realizing they are free to roam, while still others, with a panicked understanding, will frantically jam metal to metal, attempting to lock the chains back together.
Those who do stand to walk away, will not all discover the source, for the moment they 'round the corner of the wall, a jolting pain will seize them. Some will go on. Some will go back, screaming of the terrible pain that lies around the wall. Not all who can stand and peer around the side of the wall will continue. Very few indeed will be able to have the endurance, courage, and strength to continue. The pain comes from the fact that they are unaccustomed to such an uncomfortable change. Few have the patience to wait for a better time.
So much truth at one time will blind, disorient, and confuse. Where before they could see shadows, now they can see nothing. When one has the courage to press forward, creaking their still stiff joints, they begin to slowly come into focus. A resilient leader knows that the knowledge that comes after a time, however, brings much joy and much confusion. It is rarely an unhappy moment when we can finally face reality in the eye, ready to take on whatever. Those who discover such knowledge will be eager to share it with the brotherhood of the cave.
Unfortunately, often the only way to convince those staying in the cave that what they've known is an illusion is to yank them out into the light, blinding them momentarily. Confusion and pain abounds when one discovers that all he has been taught is as useful as a wisp of smoke. It is hard to realize that everything you thought you knew was a lie.
As they press forward together, into the midst of reality, or the problem itself, it becomes all the more irritable. "He will require to grow accustomed to the light." He will need time. And finally, when he can see the sun, when he can see pure reality, he can see himself truly for the first time. Once again, he'll want to help his fellow cave-dwellers, bringing them into a painful, joyful existence- a life of potential. With a lack of knowledge, however, he alone would understand what the shadows represented. The cave dwellers would say he was a fraud and foolish, blinded by the light, or that the pain was too great, and that those who forced this pain upon another ought to be punished, perhaps even killed.
I see that this has happened with the subject of rape. It has become so taboo, that those who do talk about it, speak of it in code, not really attacking the problem. We pretend to fight it by creating the shadow called "self defense for women classes." This shadow doesn't address the root of the problem. It avoids it, pretending we didn't dodge it, giving us the opportunity and excuse to feel good, as though we actually helped, when in reality we did very little. If we were to create a prevention course for men, and a stricter rule on rapists in prison, we would be closer to attacking the root of the problem- the men. But this would cause pain; this would require us to move into the light.
Our society has turned back from the light as well on this topic. In 1987, America began to address the problems of date, acquaintance, and campus rape. The news coverage grew heavily concerning it. People were beginning to talk. By 1993, however, magazines such as Newsweek and Time were coming out with new articles with headlines such as “Rape Hype” and “Sexual Correctness”, arguing that rape was nonexistent, and that it was only a result of a prude woman and overreaction of the female. One woman even wrote a book called The Morning After, arguing a similar concept. Society has slowly begun to emerge from its nervous chrysalis, but for the most part, we are scrambling to connect the chains of society together again.
Thinking comes at a price. We have been taught not to think. Those who fight are called dirty names, and become “bad boys” and “bad girls.” It is tough to take your time thinking, but it must happen! It must happen for our world to progress. Our leaders must think, but they cannot think for us.