The Truman show and the media
There is a great parallel between the film ‘The Truman Show’ and the philosophy that Plato made known, have in common that both Plato and the film, raised the existence of two differentiated worlds, two different realities, these two worlds are theSensitive world and the intelligible world.
In the Truman show the false reality, the sensitive world corresponds to the television program in which Truman’s life is transmitted, that is, the great television set. The name of this city has a meaning: paradise at sea, since the director and creator of this show wanted to create a paradise for Truman, a sensitive world, an imitation of the great world of ideas.
A world that perfectly mimics a daily reality but which was not knowledge of the actor in order to entertain and allow an audience, something similar to their reality;reality which would not be recorded and being a reason for criticism of a large number of people, which denotes selfishness, a criticism made in society that only focuses on satisfying their needs without studying the damage caused to another person.
In this world all his reality is false, his neighbors, his best friend, his mother and even his wife are simple actors, the director of this television program seen throughout the planet, is called Cristof, in reference to which he is hewho directs and manipulates the life of the hero, as Truman refers several times. On the other hand, the true reality, the intelligible world, would be the real world, outside the city that is created for Truman.
A film that is largely approaching the letter made by Plato in 380 to. C, about a reality that is part of a society that has not changed in the transformation of the years, on the contrary, it has been responsible for clarifying these factors in the behaviors of each society.
Plato proposes in his philosophy to make the same trip that the protagonist makes in the film, abandon a false life to find a true life, this path, get out of the cavern, is a difficult path, as can be evidenced in the movie when Trumanwants to leave the city by boat. At that moment of the film you can see some scenes with great difficulties for him, such as rain, storm, waves.
This is precisely my dear glaucón, the image of our condition. Underground cavern is the visible world. The fire that illuminates it is the sunlight. This prisoner who goes up to the upper region and contemplates his wonders, is the soul that rises to the intelligible world. This is what I think, since you want to know it;only God knows if it’s true. (Plato, 380 A. c)
Plato calls eros to the desire to know, which drives knowledge, wisdom, unleashed from chains. For all that Truman wants and, finally gets, get out of the cave.
In the myth of the cavern, Plato tells that the man lives chained inside him, in which he only sees shadows of true objects, in the case of the film, Truman is the chained man, and those who direct the programThey are the carriers of the objects he sees, which are not real.
Another element of Plato’s myth in the film is the light, in the myth, there is a fire that makes the role of sun inside the cave, in the film at a given time they play with this light, making the sun appear before time, at dawn, all these manipulations are made from the Moon, where those who direct the program seeing everything that happens in the city, the moon represents the sensitivity in the human being the control of the sensations.
In the myth they also talk about a wall, which in the film appears in the form of a dome, covering the entire city in which Truman lives, when the protagonist tries to get out of the cave on the ship, he meets that wall, and next toHe some stairs, when climbing those stairs find the door to the intelligible world, the real world.
If one of the men in the cave went abroad, it would have difficulty adapting to sunlight and looking for the shadows and things reflected in the water, later he got used to looking at the objects them. (Socrates 399 A.c)
Like, Truman feels pain at first to have to leave his world, since he is accustomed to living inside, in the dark, and, after all, that is the most comfortable for him. It has a hard time getting used to the blinding light from the outside and seeing the truth, knowing what the reality of things is like and of course, however, despite all this, realizing the deception, Truman, manages to march from the Cave cityand know the real world.
Society today is living within the cave that Plato poses, they are prisoners of the media, reality depends on what it tells them and they remain only with what they teach them. As a consequence they do not see the true reality, the world that surrounds them.
The Truman show allows themEven family environments that only typecast people to live in a reality seen and lived subjectively.
Those who have been imprisoned for years with heavy chains, hungry and emaciated, weak and exhausted, with their eyes acclimatized to darkness for so long that they do not even remember the light, they do not jump with joy at the moment they are puton freedom. Take some time to understand what freedom is. (Plato, 380 A.c)
Another of the relevant aspects in the film The Show The Truman refers, to the inability of man to accept his weakness to approach freedom, be aware of the fear of truth, makes them prisoners of chains, that is, situations that theyIt prevents seeing the true reason and motivation of their actions, their feelings, as seen in the film with the director of the Truman show, who lost his life for the project, dedicated his efforts, delivered his heart and at the time of the discovery he arrivedto the limit of putting Truman’s life in danger of the fear of his interior.
Idolatras will always be afraid of love, because nothing threatens them as much as their proximity. Let love approach them and ignore the body, as it will undoubted. Brother, you tremble with them. However, what you are afraid of is from the Herald of Freedom. That place of shadows is not your home. (Plato, 380 A.c)
In addition, Truman’s life allows identifyDespite facing a hard event, Truman showed that living in the shadows, in comfort, did not stop him to face a reality, one that allowed him to be autonomous and get rid of prison and chains that were only part of his life, butthat the priority for him is autonomy. They deduce that he discovers that it is not as different as what he had lived, only that he was finally free and was not tied to what others wanted him to see;Like the mass media, found in his diary to live.
My chains are loose. (…) The prison door is open. I can leave at any time just to start. (…) Only my desire to stay here keeps me a prisoner. I want (…) Finally walk towards sunlight. (Plato, 380 A.c)
In conclusion, the media are not bad, they must only learn to understand them, because these are not telling us lies. The film director says: “The media do not give you false information, they only control the true. Then, they are not lying, they only tell what they want from the truth ”(movie the Truman show). The power of media is so strong that we believe everything we hear. It can be something that is not even logical, but the media manipulates us and injected the information as explained by the hypodermic needle theory. The movie "The Truman Show" shows the power of the mass media in that case television, which influence all areas of people but that is the decision of each one to face their reality or live in reality that they want to becreates. Society, lives locked in a dome in which they are controlled by the media, and paint them so real that they fail to differentiate between the true and the false, that is why they must learn to inform themselves and see the two sides of the currency, to be able to get out of manipulated reality in which they live.
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