In his book, The Republic, Plato presents his allegory of the cave to compare the effect of education on our nature. Despite being written over 2000 years ago; it is still relevant today.
In the allegory, there is a cave in which prisoners are kept. The cavemen are chained to a rock unable to move their heads, with a bunch of flickering shadows displayed on a cave wall in front of them. The cavemen are mesmerised by these shadows as this is the only reality that they know.
Behind the prisoners is a fire and in-between the fire and the prisoners is a raised walkway, on which people can walk. These people are puppeteers carrying objects. The objects are in the shape of humans, animals and everyday items. The prisoners can only see the flickering images of these objects on the wall since they can’t move their heads, so they presume the images to be real, rather than just shadowy representations of what is actually real.
Often, the images on the wall would appear so real that the prisoners would give respect amongst each other to the one who could recall the most detail about the shapes or the order in which they appeared. This was of course hollow praise, since in fact the images were not real.
One day, one of the cavemen breaks free from the chains and turns to look at the fire. Turning back, he would notice the shadowy images weren't real at all, but only shadows of the real items on the walkway behind him. As he steps outside the cave, he sees the birds singing and the sun shining. He can smell the fresh air and is awestruck by what he sees and feels.
After learning of the reality of the world, the former prisoner now feels pity for his fellow cavemen. He is so enticed by it that he has to tell them about what he’s discovered. He now takes no pleasure in their praise for knowledge of the shadows. However, when he shares the good news with his fellow cavemen, the prisoners now see him as deranged, not really knowing what reality is. They say that he left the cave and became corrupted and start to attack him.
In modern times, a major factor in ‘breaking free of the chains’ to seek information and knowledge has been the internet. It provides unlimited information sources as well as tools and research opportunities. Our education, our acceptance or rejection of mass media propaganda and our acceptance or rejection of our politicians are all enlightened by the Internet. One can reach both the dark and the light very fast.
Once we understand what reality is, it is the job of the informed to lead the uninformed 'out of the cave' and into true knowledge. Those who still are ignorant will resist as the cave is all they've ever known. However, this doesn't change the duty of the enlightened and educated to keep trying to help his or her fellow people.