There has been rarely a time more necessary for the general public to call to mind Plato's Allegory of the Cave. While the recent tragedy in New York and Washington may seem an odd reason to turn to this allegory, they are precisely the reason that we must. Over the course of the next couple of weeks, the American public will be bombarded with "shadows of artificial things" presented as truth. This bombardment began moments after the initial attack. In order to avoid catastrophe the American public must do the impossible within the next few weeks and months- learn to think.
             The American mass media has an agenda that has become obvious to those willing to search for it. The coverage of the attack on the Trade Towers and the Pentagon has been sophisticatedly manipulated from minute one. Within hours, before any evidence could possibly have been recovered, pictures of Osama bin Laden were thrust onto he screen adjacent the wreckage. Within a few hours footage of a minority of Palestinians were seen dancing in the street. The presentation of these images was quite brilliant at drawing out the intended response- anger. Unmitigated, unreasonable, uncontrollable anger was the response intended to be drawn from the American public. Why? In order to push President Bush to act quickly in order to satiate the blood lust rising in his constituents, and eventually lead us into entering, and thus escalating, the conflict in the Middle East. The pictures were vivid and the message was clear: we must strike back, we must strike hard, and we must strike now!
             There is a Harvard professor named David Singer. He has popularized a philosophical exercise called "game theory". The game is that the player is faced with an ethical decision. You can save either A or B, with A being your sister and B being your Mother, or something to that effect. The problem is that using ones mind to work out a way to save the lives o
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