Commentary for Plato,s allegory of the cave Essay

Commentary for Plato,s allegory of the cave - Essay Example Being a Greek philosopher of his era, Plato adopts a common way to narrate the story through series of conversations between Socrates – his mentor, and Glaucon – a student. In the dialogue, Socrates instructs his student to imagine a cave, where prisoners are held. They are all chained and immobile. They can only see in front of them where there is a wall. There is a fire behind the prisoners which they cant see. There is also a passage where they can walk. The prisoners carry objects with different shapes and figures. They are like puppeteers, behind a window-dressing, because they can see the flickering reflection of the object they carry on the wall and believe that they are real. However the shadowy representations are not the real image. The plot offers a twist. Socrates is to free one of the prisoners from his chains, so that he can turn around and see that the images which his fellow prisoners believe to be true are only reflections produced from the fire behind them. The liberated prisoner will also be allowed to exit the cave. The light of the sun to which his eyes are not accustomed may blind him. Now in the outside world, he can see different dimensions like the reflection of his image in the water. The prisoner now learns how wrong his fellow cave companions were. However, even if the enlightened attempts to explain the true nature of the shadowy images and the real ones, the other prisoners will not believe him, because they dont hold any other perceptions of the world in order to compare the two. One of Platos predominant ideas (and of Socrates too) is that of the form of things. This is explained in the allegory with the help of reflections. The world consists of forms – ideal and perfect, however people can only filter them as reflections through their eyes. Thus, human beings can grasp half images of these reflections

High Profile Interest Group influence on legislation Essay

High Profile Interest Group influence on legislation - Essay Example Citizen interest groups, on the other hand, with their considerable organizational resources and wide base of support have shown their effectiveness over time in passing new laws by the use of direct legislation (Baumgartner & Hojnacki, 2009). In the United States, for example, alcohol and tobacco companies have been lobbying against the legalization and taxation of marijuana. This is in a bid to ensure that they make the most out of the American population’s high spending on leisure. This paper will discuss how one such high profile interest group, the California Beer & Beverage Distributors has influence legislation and also include the writer’s thoughts and opinion. Interest groups are a significant mechanism for citizens and economic organizations to make elected leaders know their views, needs and ideas so that they can influence the process of making legislation in their favour (Hays, 2001). The California Beer & Beverage Distributors (CBBD) opened up a new front in the campaign of what was referred to as Proposition 19 when it contributed $10,000 to a committee, Public Safety first, that was in opposition to the proposition. The proposition aimed at legalizing and subsequent taxing of controlled marijuana. Since CBBD is a organization in an industry that would have to compete with legal marijuana, it was protecting the interests of its members by lobbying against the legalization. Illicit drugs have been a threat to the alcohol and tobacco industries for a long time, hence the participation of CBBD in opposing the proposal. If marijuana is made legal for recreational purposes, then that would make the threat much bigger. Looking at the situ ation from this perspective, my opinion is that CBBD did not join the campaign solely, or with focus on, the safety of the public that would be compromised by marijuana. On the contrary, when the