[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.