Book a one way ticket to France

PLEASE WATCH THIS DOCUMENTARY IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN IT BEFORE

This post was actually quite difficult for me to write because I had to remind myself to not just spew out an angry rant. But I’d hope others who watch this would also feel angry about the healthcare system in the US. This is not the first time I’ve seen this documentary Sicko and yet again it made me very angry as to how the healthcare system works in the US. People are unable to afford basic health care and far too many people are okay with that. Kids get turned away from a hospital because the insurance won’t cover it in that hospital, as shown in the documentary. It is not over dramatic to say that the health care system is killing people. There are nearly “50 million Americans with no health insurance, 18,000 of them will die this year simply because they are uninsured”.

I did some fact checking of my own on this information from 2007, when the documentary was released. For the most part the facts were true. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention said 43.6 million, or about 15 percent of Americans, were uninsured in 2006. Over the five years previous, the overall count had fluctuated between 41 million and 44 million people. According to the Institute of Medicine, 18,000 people did die each year mainly because they are less likely to receive screening and preventive care for chronic diseases. Many don’t want to get treated because they already know how expensive it will be. I actually understand this because since living in the US, specifically attending this school, I have to think about healthcare and treatment costs. I also avoided the doctor for a while because I wanted to wait until I got back home where I know it would be covered by my insurance, the way insurance should work, even if you don’t have a universal healthcare system. The thing is, I would much prefer paying taxes that go towards healthcare for everyone rather than one day having something tragic happen that leaves me bankrupt with medical bills. But there is an attitude that is very much evident among people and that is, if it’s not happening to me why should I take care of it. That is not the right way to look at it. We can all help each other with a better healthcare system.

I find it easy to relate this documentary to our reading on the Allegory of the Cave by Plato. In Plato’s theory, the cave represents people who believe that knowledge comes from what we see and hear in the world. The cave shows that believers of empirical knowledge are trapped in a ‘cave’ of misunderstanding. There is a lot of misunderstanding on universal healthcare. Many Americans think their system is expensive because it’s very good. They are wrong. The US ranks 28th, below almost all other rich countries, when it comes to the quality of its healthcare assessed by the UN. Single payer healthcare, where the government pays for universal coverage, typically through taxes, helps keep costs down for two main reasons. It means that the government can regulate and negotiate the price of drugs and medical services, and it eliminates the need for a vast private health insurance bureaucracy. Currently, the US spends two to three times as much per capita on health care as most industrialized countries.

In the Allegory of the Cave, the escaped prisoner represents the philosopher, who seeks knowledge outside of the cave and outside of the senses. What I find funny, is when the group from the documentary “escaped” to Cuba. Not something you’d usually hear. One lady purchased her medicine in Cuba for 6 cents. The same medicine costs her over 100 dollars in the US.  Can you imagine spending that much money every month on medication that you absolutely need, when other countries get it at such a low cost or for nothing. The documentary shows comparisons to France, the UK and Canada. The documentary does a good job of highlighting the mindset on healthcare in these countries, and how it differs so much from the US.

At the end of the Allegory of the Cave, the other prisoners reactions to the escapee returning represents that people are scared of knowing philosophical truths and do not trust philosophers. I think sometimes people are reluctant and scared to hear that maybe their way is not the best way, and that for such a long time they are not getting the healthcare they deserve. I believe healthcare is a right, and not something that only those who can afford it receive. Do you not agree?

The Internet's Truth

            The internet world resembles a cave like in “The Allegory of The Cave” by Plato. The prisoners in the cave resemble everyone on the internet. The shadows that the prisoners are seeing and perceiving as reality are like the world we perceive on the internet. We believe that the world we are seeing on the internet is reality until we experience it in real life. When the prisoner escapes from the cave and learns the reality of the world, he is very confused and it takes time to readjust to the world as fact. In “Catfish: the Movie,” it takes time for Nev to understand that the internet reality he has been experiencing is not the true reality.

            The internet is a fast world of false realities that many people fall into. It connects almost everyone in the world to each other and information is limitless. However, with this access to information and to other people, you will find those people who are not honest and abuse the information available. Nev experienced this first hand and his brother Rel filmed it in “Catfish: the Movie.” Nev began a relationship with a woman he met online. This woman, Angela, used the information on the internet to make a fake profile to connect with Nev. She used photos, videos, music, and art that she found online to make her profile as believable as possible. Nev believed her. The profile that Nev saw was like the shadows in the cave; he believed what he was seeing and experiencing. Nev slowly began to discover the truth. Like the freed prisoner, it took time for him to understanding the true reality of the “Facebook Family.” He now helps other through “Catfish: the TV Show.” In this show, he helps people who are experiencing the same thing he did. When he tries to tell other that the online reality is not a real reality, they do not believe him. This situation is like the freed prisoner returning to the cave and attempting to explain to the other prisoners what the real world is like and that the shadows they see are not actually true reality.

            The internet acts as a vale for people to hide behind and the movie shows the truth behind those who use it. Herzog addresses the differences in ecstatic truth and absolute truth in his essay, “On the Absolute, the Sublime, and the Ecstatic Truth.” Ecstatic truth is defined as the experience of truth that brings people out of themselves. Absolute truth is the truth that is always true. The movie shows the ecstatic truth of the internet. Herzog does not agree with Plato’s idea of simple reality being the absolute truth. Herzog’s idea is strengthened with the internet and the ways it can be used that are shown in “Catfish: the Movie.”

Perception and Deception

‘The Allegory of the Cave’ by Plato and Black Mirror’s episode of Men Against Fire have striking parallels. In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, Plato gives us a tale about prisoners, who are chained up to where they can only look at the wall in front of them. On this wall, the prisoners observe shadows projected on the wall from objects passing by the fire which is behind them. These confined prisoners are forced to determine reality based on their own perceptions. They assume what they perceive to be reality. They accept it as truth.

In the film Men Against Fire all of the soldiers who have Mass implants are like the prisoners in the cave of Plato’s allegory. The protagonist nicknamed ‘Stripe’ and his military squad seek to eliminate the ‘roaches’. Early on the in the film, we see Stripe and his squad mates on a mission to eradicate these roaches who raided a nearby town. They end up encountering the roaches, and eliminating almost all of them. As we see during the face-to-face encounter Stripe had with the roaches, the roaches appear to be inhuman, monstrous beasts. However, one of these roaches had a device that gave off ‘light’, which would soon take its affect on Stripe.

Light plays a pivotal role in Plato’s allegory and in Men Against Fire. Its leads to the eye-opening, epiphany moment of the escaped prisoner and Stripe. Light is the source of knowledge and truth. The light casts its bright beams into the darkness of the prisoner’s mind in Plato’s allegory, and the light does the same to Stripe in Men Against Fire. However, unlike the Sun being the cause of the escaped prisoner accumulating truth and knowledge, a device configured by a roach gives off rays of light. This device causes Stripe to gradually understand reality and see it for what it truly is.

I think it is no coincidence that the writers and producers of Black Mirror titled this episode “Men Against Fire”. The prisoners in Plato’s allegory are exactly like soldiers in Men Against Fire. Their backs are turned against or away from the fire. They are subject to only perceiving whatever is being shown in front of them. They determine to what they perceive to be reality.

Like Plato, I think the producers of Black Mirror were seeking to convey the idea that our perception might not always be the actual reality. In other words, we can sometimes mistake appearance for reality. For instance, a clear example of this is the monstrous appearance of the roaches to soldiers injected with Mass implants. We learn these ‘roaches’ actually look just like your average human. It is the soldiers who are falsely assuming what they perceive to be true. Reality is different. They were like the prisoners in the Plato’s allegory. They were subject to what was being projected for them to see. They had no control of it.

Are there instances nowadays where people assume truth based on appearance? In other words, do most people assume what they perceive to be true as reality? Do most people just automatically assume truth purely based on appearances?

I think a historic example of this is the Holocaust. Jews were specifically targeted and labeled as subhuman by the Nazis. Young German’s during WWII were raised to join Hitler’s youth, and become soldiers who marched with anti-semitic beliefs hardwired into their brains.  These Nazi soldiers were just like the Mass troops in Men Against Fire. In order to systematically kill millions of Jews, they had to view Jews as subhuman.

Can anyone think of current examples where people have determined another group of people to be subhuman based upon their appearance or how they perceive them? Why does this happen? Is it because of social media? The news? Are there examples of this going on right now?

Allegory to the Merits

In Fifteen Million Merits, it depicts the reality of a man named, Bing. Similar to the prisoners in Plato’s story, he only knows one simple truth: pedaling gets him merits. These merits are essential to his life inside the facility, which is symbolically his cave. The puppet masters, aka the people in charge, let him know that this is his only reality through the use of merit deduction and forcing him to watch the programs around him.

In the competition scene, Abi is only offered a position at Wraith Girls. After Abi’s predicament, Bing starts to question what he has previously believed, exactly like the free prisoner in Plato’s story, because he knows deep down that she did not warrant the future she was handed. This shift in thoughts is what led Bing to working his butt off to work up to fifteen million merits again. In his speech on stage, he even states, “Show us something real and free and beautiful. You couldn’t, yeah? It’d break us. We’re too numb for it.” This quote directly implies a similar tone to the prisoners in Plato’s story. The other prisoners were too ignorant to listen to the freed prisoner about what he saw and refused to partake in such silly thoughts. They were too broken in on their own theories to consider possibilities of others.

After his speech has wrapped up, one of the judges speaks, further mentioning that Bing’s take was, “Your truth, admittedly, but the truth nonetheless.” This clarification of different realities mimics the tone of the Allegory of the Cave. Lastly, much like the prisoners in the story at the very end, the other people refuse to accept his concept and cheer at him to take the judge’s radio show offer. Bing ultimately accepts the offer and gives into the flawed reality that he had previously rejected, which is exactly like the freed prisoner. In the end, Plato’s story and Fifteen Million Merits both show that enlightenment can free a prisoner but also hinder them by leaving them in a position of vulnerability.

However, I can’t help but wonder how drastically the story could have changed if Bing had not been cheered on from the audience. Also, do you think the incorporation of “digital” figures convey a certain point? Could the digital avatars been replaced with real people or would the point the producer is trying to make not be fully expressed without them? After all, even CNN wrote an article about how digital avatars could alter the world.

Becoming a Prisoner in Plato's Cave

In today’s age of rapidly occurring advancements in technology, it becomes next to impossible to keep secrets hidden. As shown in Black Mirror’s season three episode “Shut Up and Dance”, one of the strongest forms of punishment can be through the exploitation of the skeletons in our closets. In traditional Black Mirror fashion, there is a redefining moment in the last five minutes of the episode that causes the viewer to rethink everything they have seen up until that point. The revelation that these people were not chosen at random and that they all have secrets which are revealed to be much darker than originally thought causes the viewer to questions everything they have thought throughout the course of the episode. The most shocking being the discovery about why Kenny is so ashamed of his masturbation video and why he will go to such lengths to hide it. 

So why is discovering that Kenny watches child pornography so shocking? It is because the episode presents a sympathetic character who is seemingly being punished for a common activity in which many people partake. Looking back there where subtle signs, such as the way Kenny takes a special interest in the little girl at the beginning of the show, but these are offset by the assumptions that we as viewers make about him. In a way, this episode is very reminiscent of Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”, only in this situation the viewers of the episode are the prisoners who develop an inability to see the world as it is. Like the prisoners we see in shadows. These shadows being the result of the punishment the characters are undertaking rather than the reality of the purpose behind their punishment. Time and time again Kenny proves to be a sympathetic character, from wetting his pants during the bank robbing scene to being willing to kill himself so he does not have to kill another person, Kenny becomes someone you start to think doesn’t deserve this torture. I found myself as a viewer rooting for Kenny up until the moment his mother reveals that his secret isn’t just a video of him masturbating. After that, I was as disgusted and disappointed as his mother. It amazes me how quickly I can go from being disturbed that someone can put other people through these situations to happy that they received their punishment. 

Unlike Plato’s prisoners, I cannot return to the cave. I just have to face the fact that sometimes when the shade over reality is uncovered, the truth is so much worse.