Plato's Cave of Politics, Korean Movies, Jesus's Wisdom
Three Point Thursday
One effect of disillusionment.
One of the most famous ideas Plato gives us is his Allegory of the Cave, in which prisoners chained in a dark cave see shadows of objects on the wall cast by a fire burning behind them, and mistake it for the reality. Recently I’ve been so disgusted with politics and news media that I can’t help but feel like those manipulated people in the cave. What can I trust in a world full of such shameless propaganda, with armies of bots programmed to create division, and AI slop and deepfakes that move at the speed of light? What is just appearances? How much of what I see is literally intentionally made to deceive me? These questions are becoming increasingly harder to answer.
When you just can’t look away.
My girlfriend and I have become obsessed with watching movies from South Korea.1 It sounds weird, but despite how brutal most of the ones we’ve seen are, there is something so relaxing about watching a movie in a language you don’t understand. It feels more like reading a book than anything else, and forces you to really pay attention to the story and dialogue. You notice and appreciate themes at a deeper level.
Mark 8:36
“For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?”
Specific ones I’d recommend: Memories of Murder, The Man from Nowhere, Burning, Parasite, Memoir of a Murderer, Mother, and A Normal Family.