Education can be violent. Increased education in a society leads to more knowledge, which leads to more technology. Countless times in history has it been shown what mass destruction we are capable of as humans with the advancing of technology. Technology has also lead to the degeneration of some of the minds of our society. Television, the internet, texting, video games, etc., allow people to waste large amounts of time perpetually not really critically thinking or analyzing, and allows them to just be entertained. These are some examples of how education can be violent.
In Plato’s essay, “The Allegory of a Cave” education (rather, mis-education, or their perceived world) leads to a warped reality with foolish notions held in high esteem to a point where when questioned they would become violent. The story takes place inside a cave with a bunch of prisoners who have been chained there their entire lives facing a blank wall. On the wall they see only shadows, which they perceive as reality, and hear noises, which they associate with the shadows. They hold in high esteem those among them who are able to identify the shadows the fastest, notice trends, and make predictions as to upcoming shadows with accuracy. At one point, a prisoner is turned free and allowed to see the world for what it is. When he returns to his society of cave dwelling prisoners, his eyes are not adjusted to the dark, and he is mocked for his views, and laughed off for not being able to identify the shadows as fast as the other prisoners.
Education is violent in this essay because the prisoners education blinds them to truth. Even the prisoner who was set free was skeptical of everything he was shown. He initially believed the shadows played out on the cave wall were truer forms of reality than the real objects themselves. It wasn’t until he was forced to see reality, forced out into daylight and the world, that he realized what folly the ability to identify shadows truly was. But since he could no longer play the games of his society, they believed that the reality he spoke of, this other world, was dangerous, and that if anyone tried to force anyone else out of the cave, the society would put them to death.
There is one positive thing that can be said about education from this essay. The freed prisoner was allowed into the world, where he saw what reality truly was, and he began coming up with his own theories of how things work, especially in regards to the sun's role. The essay says that not only does the prisoner decide, but is compelled to return to the cave dwelling prisoner society to help them out. He feels pity for the perverse reality his fellow man is forced to live in, and rushes back to the cave to save them.
Education in a society can be both a positive and negative thing. It can’t be as easy as saying “education is OK as long as you keep an open mind” because education is taught to the masses, and the majority of a society follows trends. I guess the key is how careful we are with what we choose, and how we choose, to educate our society with.
