The philosopher Plato in his seminal work The Republic argues using Socrates as a vehicle in the allegory of the cave that knowledge and truth truth leads to freedom. Glaucon and Socrates begin a discussion about a group of prisoners who can only see what is right in front of their faces. They are chained in a cave, unable to move. Behind them is a fire and a group of puppeteers, their dungeons, who use props: containers, statues, puppets and other objects to cast shadows on the wall in front of the prisoners. That's all they've ever seen. This is the truth they know. Sometimes a prisoner is forced to leave the cave. They must be forced to leave the world they know. Socrates tells Glaucon the result of one of the prisoners: he left ignorance and entered into an intellectual truth. The freedman would naturally pity his former companions because they live in a false reality. Would he return to the darkness to educate and free his comrades from prison? He would only see darkness. Could the puppeteers allow him to live once he knew the truth? His companions in the darkness of the cave would not be able to understand the truth. Their chains keep them in their state of ignorance. The status quo likes ignorant prisoners, they can control their thoughts and their perception of the truth. The freedman would be put to death for trying to educate the prisoners and free them from their ignorance. The other prisoners would not be able to understand the truth. Socrates equates this to an individual's journey towards knowledge and once achieved, the person does not want to return to a state of ignorance. The effects of knowledge change personally, politically, socially and nationally (Socrates is not against all forms of poetry only the imitative kind. This is not the truth. A creation held up to a mirror is not real. It is a reflection of the original, and it can be distorted and altered in ways that destroy the original. According to Socrates, imitative poetry does not provoke thought and corrupts the soul. People were too stupid to see that. imitative poetry was not the truth. It was seductive and could corrupt the soul of even a wise man. The truth was the only protection against the corruption of this type of poetry. the original, poetry, art, etc. Socrates asks Glaucon to distinguish the difference in an original object, a bed, created by a carpenter and copied by a painter Was the bed copied. or created by the painter? Was it copied as it was or as it appeared? What is the truth? The painter is not the creator of the bed in question, is he? only the copier of the carpenter's art. He imitated the carpenter's art without the carpenter's sacrifice. The beauty of art never changes, the beautiful never changes but perception can be changed through imitation. By the reflection in the mirror. This can be imitated but it is not the truth. Imitation is the deception, seduction and corruption of