Syed Yusuf Saadat
Research Associate, Centre for Policy Dialogue
Imagine a group of people living in a cave which has its opening towards the light. They have lived here since childhood – sitting down, with their legs and necks fettered with shackles so that they cannot even turn their heads, let alone escape. Above and behind them is a burning fire. Between the fire and the prisoners is a raised walkway, which is obscured from view by a low wall. Men walk along this path, and behind the wall, carrying statues and figures of animals and objects made of wood and stone. Some of the men talk, whilst others remain silent. These statues and figures cast shadows on the opposite cave wall which the prisoners see. The prisoners talk to each other, and name these shadows. They give compliments to each other for being able to recognize the shadows quickly. The voices of the men carrying the statues and figures echo off the cave wall, and the prisoners believe that these sounds are coming from the shadows themselves. To the prisoners, the truth is tantamount to the shadows on the cave wall. This might seem to be a strange scenario, and these people might seem to be strange prisoners. Yet this scenario accurately represents the life of millennials in the modern world.
Let us now piece together the analogy of the millennials from the allegory of the cave. The prisoners in the cave are the millennials. The cave wall is the screen of the smartphone. The shadows are images and videos seen on the internet. The men carrying the statues and figures belong to different groups, depending on what kind of shadows they are showcasing. The military shows shadows of freedom, the government shows shadows of privilege, the corporations show shadows of satisfaction, and the media show shadows of information. The millennials see these shadows and mistake them for real freedom, privilege, satisfaction, and information. But like the prisoners in the cave, the millennials cannot be blamed for their misapprehension. As bona fide prisoners, they have been looking at the screens of their smartphones all their lives. They have never known any other form of existence.
Going back to the cave, now suppose one of the prisoners is suddenly emancipated. Assume further that the prisoner is forced to stand up, turn around, and walk out of the cave into the sunlight. Initially his eyes will be dazzled by the light of the sun. Slowly, as he gets acclimatized to the light, his surroundings will appear to him as an illusion. He will insist that the truth is in shadows on the wall of the cave, and all that is beyond the cave is merely a deception. He will not be able to see anything clearly in the beginning. At first he will see shadows, then reflections, and then objects themselves. Then he will see the moon and stars at night. Finally, he will be able to see the sun. He will slowly come to realize that the sun is the ultimate source of light, and that light is the cause of the shadows which he once saw on the cave wall.
A similar fate awaits our millennials. If somehow, one of them is liberated from their restraints, and is compelled to explore the world around them, then they will act like one of the prisoners of the cave. They will confuse reality for a hallucination. And if one such enlightened millennial is sent back to educate his prisoner friends, then they will at first mock him, and then plot to kill him.
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