There is a story of an immortal army where none of their soldiers can ever die. Very curiously however, there is no victory to their name. Every other army always had one up on them; the mortal armies destroyed their roads, their buildings. The immortal army could never gain victory because they were disarmed in infrastructure. The weakness of the immortals lied in the idea of wholesale slaughter of other mortal nations. The immortals could not die, so why not try to kill every last one of the puny mortals? There’s nothing to be afraid of besides the fact that wounds slow them down. It was a reasonable idea but at every battle they mysteriously lacked the capacity to fight. “Sabotage!” the immortal army cried. There was trouble among the ranks.
One immortal soldier observed the tactics of the mortal armies. He came to this conclusion: We cannot fight, for their spies destroy our weapons. We cannot move, because the enemy destroys our roads. Our morale is low, and we cannot sleep because our buildings lack the capacity to shield us from the rain. The next day of battle he decided to go ahead of his mindlessly stubborn brethren. He noticed a tower. The tower rained arrows on the immortals, who only saw the taunting enemies behind it. The lone enlightened immortal did what one else ever thought of doing and charged for the tower on the side instead. He died, many times, with arrows in his chest he managed to find the strength to chop the tower down. The immortals, believing their eternal persistence has paid off, had actually won the battle! The lone immortal soldier told of his efforts on the tower. This reminded the immortals of the sabotage that they believe has been holding them back the whole time so they put him to death, though when immortals kill their own, they don’t come back. Many years later the immortals were pushed back further and further into a cave and sealed up. They still struggle to this day, never realizing that it takes more than killing a man to defeat him.
The concept of taking the initiative is relevant to the Allegory of the Cave. It is one exceptional event that allows one to leave the cave. It is vague and uncertain how the one free man was able to escape from the cave. Likewise the one immortal soldier received the unexplainable spark that allowed him to change the tide of battle. It is not uncertain how the soldier escaped from his rut compared to the man from the cave. It was all from his effort alone, but even then how did it manifest in him? The aspect of one individual becoming exceptional and possibly championing the rest of his or her people disturbs me a bit. One special person among the muddled masses sounds like an argument for dictatorship if you ask me.
The return to the cave intrigues me even more. Besides being so hard to convince the prisoners of the cave to also find the light (in more ways than one), there are the chances of the enlightened one being silenced for his efforts. Is the illusion in the cave so convincing that they are willing to destroy their own to continue a cycle of self-perpetuation? I just do not understand the narrative’s lack of faith in the common people.
(Quick first note: I'm breaking this up into two comments because Google finds it wise to put word count limits on blog replies).
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This is a fascinating story, thank you very much for posting it! Could you let me know its origin or how you came across it? I'd be very interested to know the tradition it came from.
I share your interest in and skepticism about the seeming exclusivity of Plato's "Allegory". I've never been sure why he has just one prisoner be released, or why escape from the cave comes across as such a miraculous feat. I do believe it's a great feat. Overcoming the controlling elements of one's environment, especially one that we are so "bound" to, is a remarkable thing, but it seems common knowledge that many people make good and do good with their lives, and do the serious work that is needed to be authentic, responsible, and aware of the world they live in.
At the same time, though, many do not--- ourselves included. I don't know and highly doubt it's even possible to live an absolutely, completely sunlit existence. We hear of the rarest individuals such as Jesus, Muhammed, Lao Tzu, the Buddha or Dali Lama, accomplishing as much, but those stories have become so highly mythologized that they have cave/illusory aspects of their own.
So, in our own age, I see Ghandi and MLK as examples of such "fully enlightened" souls, but we have the benefit of history to see the whole picture of such figures' lives. Both, for example, constantly referenced myriad mistakes they believed they had made in their lives and work, and before being lionized into the icons they are seen as now, were under constant criticism for many many reasons, some of this (a lot?) even quite valid, as they would sometimes confirm.
Part two:
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Beyond "the work" though, anyone's inner self and experience is often full of shadows--- even among those we would consider enlightened. I heard a fascinating interview with Michael Eric Dyson (check the radio link if you're interested: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89344679) in which this biographer and cultural critic discusses the extreme struggle within himself that MLK went through leading up to his assassination. Very briefly, he faced some of the most extreme anxiety attacks I've ever heard of before practically every speech he gave in his final months, on the one hand out of fear for his life, but from deeper existential causes such as guilt, depression, critical judgment of himself, and other psychological and emotional causes. Often, for example, he would have severe bouts of insomnia, tremor attacks, and even uncontrollable hiccups that he'd hold down during the speech or meeting, then return to once again out of the public eye.
Mind you, I don't bring this up to criticize the man or minimize his achievement. Just the opposite: it reminds me of how human he was, and gives me my own hope and perspective when I face my own shadows. That said--- I started this point with the hypothesis shared by Plato that we're never fully out of the cave. Rather, there are multiple caves intersecting the various forms of our experience and action. Some people are "in deeper" whereas others have found or built a lot of light in their eyes and minds, but everyone has to work. That's probably a good thing: we don't want life to get boring eh? And for many other reasons....
This could make for an compelling essay topic. It has many cheesy elements, but the movie "Roadside Prophets" is one of my favorite films precisely because it treats this subject so well. The lead character Joe is a great guy, everyone likes him, and he seems to "get" practically everything, which is why he starts on the accidental journey that he ends up on. Yet he messes up right and left, and has to keep learning not just in a telescope from start to finish, but along every step of the path there. There is a great degree of paradox in the title of the movie "Hero" for that matter as well, whether you're talking about the Jet Li epic or the Dustin Hoffman comedy. In both cases, what defines greatness takes ironic turns that make us re-evaluate the complexity involved in the definition and extension of a "good person"/hero's character. Any of these could be great, let me know if you'd like to discuss them further. Excellent blog here: I can't wait to read your essay!
I made it up. People tend to roll their eyes if someone makes a reference to their experiences in a video game (which has no story to begin with), so I had to make an allegory of it. The return to the Cave resonated with me because it reminded me of the rejection by 127 people (real people playing the game) on a team telling the one person that said something possibly productive to "shut up." Make no mistake, I have a constant faith in common people, rather than what I think I'm witnessing to be the emergence of exceptionalism in people. Woodrow Wilson said "If you want to make enemies, try to change something." Expounding on the return to the Cave and the reaction of the common people, the "freed" person is either worshipped or smothered. Apparently MLK and Ghandhi you mentioned ended up becoming the latter. Personally I wish exceptional people did not exist because they either end up as tyrants or dead, and the good ones always seem to bend towards ending up dead.
ReplyDeleteGreat story you've made up! One question:
ReplyDeleteDo they simply end up dead if their work lives on and extends beyond their lifespan or even consciousness? I can't imagine where America or India would be without their efforts, many centuries of some of humanity's darkest shadows brought to the light and surmounted....
Well, on their behalf it's kind of hard to tell whether they're currently enjoying the fruits of their labor. One thing about being a martyr is believing that things will continue on after you've done your work.
ReplyDeleteCheck out both of their last speeches....
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