Who the heck can we believe? Episode 2 of author AK Patch’s series on 3 timeless truths from the ancient world to sustain a vibrant life in the 21 century. Last week we covered arrogance and humility. Today, well discuss dealing with distorted truths. What do you have for us AK? Last week we talked about unbridled arrogance at some point will come back to get you, and confidence with a measure of humility is a better way to be. Today I’m, going back to the ancient Greece to reveal wisdom for Socrates and Plato. It’s astounding that in 380 BC, those two philosophers nailed our national media and their bias. Wait to you hear this! I’m going to reveal to you the ALLEGORY OF PLATO”S CAVE. Aren’t we supposed to stay out of deep, dark caves? What is PLATO”S CAVE? Especially when we become unwillingly trapped in that cave!!! Socrates most famous student, the philosopher, Plato, described how we are manipulated by the powers at be to further their power over us. The allegory begins with the citizens of a community chained to the floor of a cave. There is a giant cave wall in front of them. That’s all they can see. The powerful, the manipulators, or puppet masters, are up above them. They can’t be seen by the citizens. What the puppet masters do is pass symbols and figures in front of a fire that cast shadows on the cave wall. Since that’s all the citizens see, that is their whole experience, or their whole truth. What happens next, AK? Someone frees one of the citizen prisoners. He is led up an arduous road to the surface (this represents education). He bursts out into the light of day, and is blinded. Then our former prisoner is amazed by what he sees and experiences (the truth) The world is so much different than what he was shown in the cave. He feels its his moral mission to inform the other back in the cave that they’re being lied to. He goes back down and tells everyone- Don’t accept these symbols. They’re lies. The truth is up above. Do the prisoners believe him? No!!! They tell him he’s crazy. Finally, they tell him to go away, or they’ll kill him. They haven’t been educated to look past the mandatory education of the Puppet masters. Isn’t this incredible! In 380 BC, the Greek philosophers nailed our national media and those behind their manipulation. So what do we do about it? Timeless truth #2- Don’t believe everything you hear, see, or read in the media. We have many preset biases, many of them political. We ac