Plato's Allegory of a Cave as a Window Into the Reality of Media Puppeteers Indoctrinating the Public at Large

Regardless of a shocking disappointment, grief, and subsequent week-long rampage of a large number of Hillary Clinton supporters, it is optimistically realistic that the sheer number of dirty tricks that went on in the attempt of the mainstream media to secure the Clinton victory is now coming to bite the media industrial complex.  Just like the release of a slave in Plato's Allegory of a Cave led to his realization of deception he was subjected to together with his fellow slaves, which then led to his turning away from the wisdom of the cave, in a similar way have the Wikileaks revelations in combination with mainstream media's plain arrogance during the recent US presidential elections created a trend of an abandonment of the mainstream media puppeteers by an ever growing segment of the public.

Those who in these 2016 US presidential elections were unable to see the obvious and shameless bias by all of the US and international mainstream media will hardly have a better opportunity to witness it at similar scale again until the next elections four years later.  Ignoring to report on the leaked Wikileaks publications of relevant information about immoral and criminal acts of individual candidates, open discrimination against presidential candidates out of favor (Trump, Johnson, Stein,. ..) production of biased expert opinions, manipulation of public through bogus opinion polls, complicity in rigging the debates by informing preferred candidates of debate questions in advance, and finally by Hollywood-style acting of being shocked and surprised of Trump victory, which - they claimed - no one predicted.

But the fact is that, despite the media war in favor of the US Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton, and the corporate machinery that stood behind them, Trump victory is an indicator that a good part of the American public has for some time turned their back on propaganda manipulators. This is supported by another cheerful fact that year on year the mainstream media is seriously losing its audience, where the public is increasingly canceling their cable TV subscriptions and are turning to alternative media for news. Thanks to Internet and social media, today, a small but growing segment of society - in the most accessible way possible - is consuming and comparing an array of online media sources, in order to have enough quantity and quality information to make up their own conclusions about what the truth is. Shocked by information which they are coming across, double shocked by realization of the scale of fraudulent mainstream media reporting and manipulation of information, an increasing number of citizens is engaging in time-consuming information gathering and debating within their own circles. Among them is also an even smaller but growing number of those who - because of being so deeply immersed and eventually becoming experts in exposing the media - decide to become part of the alternative media themselves. All this is an encouraging trend that we fans of individual freedom can celebrate, because it can never be stopped and it will only grow even faster.

To arrive with the answer as to why the mainstream media isn't doing their duty as is expected of them, it is necessary to re-examine our beliefs about what the real purpose and responsibility of the media is. That their sacred function perhaps isn't to be "unbiased" recorders of man's deeds and virtues, but that their purpose is the production of news and reporting content that will bring them profit. Which simply highlights the fact that the media can be and often are bought and paid for to promote agendas that conceal and distort reality, in favor of those who buy their propaganda services.

Although Plato wrote his Allegory of the Cave with the intention of explaining his (although wrong) mystical vision of reality and imagination, it far better reflects today's real - and shocking - role in and success of the media manipulation in society. Maybe this truly ironic animation of Plato's parable will help even more people draw parallels with the present state of the media in their lives, and prompt them to stop being victims of propaganda and encourage them to seek truth elsewhere in diverse media in the information marketplace. Without truth, it is impossible to make reasonable and moral decisions, the truth is essential if we want to live in a world with fewer wars and destruction and more peace, justice, cooperation, friendship and prosperity.