the allegory of 'cave-men'.

The allegory of cavemen put forth by greek thinker Socrates is an excellent eye opener for today's so called techie intelligentsia that wants to abandon all the moral impositions and stretch out to live a king sized life free of all restrictions. Here's how it goes.

Once upon a time, there was a civilization which thrived deep below the ground. Everything in this civilization was pitch dark, and the concept of light was unknown. The inhabitants were habituated to live this kind of environment. Like the people on earth, they too had friends and relatives and a system of lanes to move in. However, the difference was that everything here was absolutely dark and was considered 'normal' by these people. There was, however, one person who hoped for a better world, for a world beyond darkness. Convinced about its existence and restless with the desire to discover it, he once set over a journey and started moving along one of those many lanes. After walking uni-directionally for long long hours, he noticed a small pinhole of light at the farthest end. He began to walk in the direction of that pinhole, which eventually grew bigger and bigger and ultimately into a human sized exit. As he stepped out of the cave, he was flabbergast at what he saw. He was looking at a beautiful scenic beauty lined by a clear blue sky with a bright sun, sweet chirping birds emerging out of beautiful mountains which lined the horizon, a clear lake at the bottom and the lush green surrounding with various kind of beautiful trees laden with fruits, with deers playing on the lakeside and squirrel having fun up and down the trees. He had feeling of unprecedented joy and satisfaction, a deep sense of inner fulfillment. He couldn't believe his eyes for this was something he had only dreamt of. After having obtained such an extraordinary vision, he obviously didn't want to go back into the cave anymore. But he was a person of selfless heart, and was forced from within to share his incredible discovery with the other members of his civilization who were suffering inside the cave. Reluctantly, he stepped back into the cave and walked to reach his underground city. Finding it difficult to contain the 'truth' that he had justseen, he walked straight into an assembly of people and yelled if off. Everbody heard him intently. As he described it, he could see that there was a change in their facial expression; something was definitely wrong. And before he could wind up the discription, one of them interrupted, "stop that nonsense! you are just another religious fanatic".

What an allegory! Like a punch hit squarely on the nose. Its interesting to see that such people existed even at the time of Socrates.