[JohnBrookz]

Maybe I’m surrounded by the wrong people, but even amongst my educated peers their opinions are regurgitated. Not even from an interesting author but what they’ve seen online or in mainstream culture.

The only exception being my contrarian friend but his opinions aren’t any more intelligent, just different.

Has this really been any different since the dawn of modern propaganda though? The only difference is now we use it to sell goods not just political ideas.

I think the few who leave Plato’s cave on their own are far less than what we would like and those who remain will never truly be free. Their comfort lies in the cave.

[pyinstallwoes]

I’ve always wondered how many truly unique brains are active at any given moment. How many words are parrots vs source?

[zarathustreal]

The notion of source is an illusion. We’re all just echos of the physical processes that created us and perpetuate us.

[pyinstallwoes]

There are certainly original thoughts, at least per a sliding window.

[timschmidt]

Everything is a Remix (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9RYuvPCQUA), even people.

[parthianshotgun]

Maybe you can start by asking the right questions

[JohnBrookz]

It’s hard. I think people get sucked into the matrix. I had a friend who was a really interesting person. Had well thought out beliefs and we used to talk about philosophy, politics and science.

Eventually she got a high paying, high stress high finance job and eventually she had no time to really think about things. Instead it was easier to repeat talking points she saw on the news and spend what little time she had enjoying her money. We still keep in touch but she actively isn’t interested in our old subjects as they’re too stressful to think about. It’s a fair point.

My coworker is reasonably decent engineer and intelligent person. His motivation in life is to just make money to feed his addiction to video games, gambling and drugs. We’re friends outside of work so I encouraged him to break away from his vices but to him there’s not much in the “real world”. It’s not entertaining, optimistic or fun so he plugs in after work.

I have a lot friends like these. The funny thing about the cave allegory is that in modern times the world outside of the cave is much more chaotic, hateful and scary.

[parthianshotgun]

Yes, it's hard, I agree. I suppose this is why we venerate Socrates. For our part though, we need to be alive, to understand this unity of being and, to paraphrase Forster, live in fragments no longer.