In the allegory of the cave, the prisoners were only allowed to see the wall of the cave, and the shadows that danced upon it. They believed that this was a valid world, and that a world without these shadows didn’t exist. For many people, this sounds like an allusion to the work we live in, and the line between knowledge and ignorance. However, this allegory takes me back to a video I watched, about disability in the world today, and simulations that help people understand what it’s like to be disabled. What messages do these simulations send to people who aren’t disabled (in this society)? In many ways, we, the majority are the people who can only see disability through a large shadow, and we can never fully grasp at what it means to be disabled in our society. Also, we take disability at its face value. We never think about how disabled people are just as able as us, and that they are not suffering every day of their lives. Just as the people in the cave are perfectly comfortable living int he shadows, not experiencing a loss of anything, disabled people function in our world today without suffering from an inability to wake up and go through their day because their life is so hard. I feel as if we are the people who are chained inside the cave, trying to see disability through a lens which can’t really replicate what the “real” thing is, or give us an experience that is truly disabling or shows what it’s like to have always been like this. What we don’t realize, as people in the cave, is that disability exists, but only because our society isn’t “disabled” friendly. We always exclude ourselves because we are the majority, but it’s a little like the situation in which you are not only sitting in traffic, you are the traffic. This is because disability isn’t easy to live with, but just because people are doing it everyday doesn’t mean it’s “inspiring” or “amazing” that they can just make it out of bed everyday and live their “misfortune- filled life” with a smile. Just because disabled people don’t function well in society today, doesn’t mean that there is no society in which able bodied people would not function as well as disabled people, like the world outside the cave.
Anoushka, this perspective is one that I've never fully considered. When discussing disability, we tend to label those who are not as abled as us as the prisoners in the cave (if we are discussing it in the context of the allegory of the cave). The idea that we (able-bodied) are the ones who live staring at the shadows, refusing to acknowledge any other reality that could as fulfilling as this is a perspective is really interesting. I have a younger sister with Down Syndrome and I know how hard it is to define the difference between her doing something normal and her doing something that is inspiring. It's a tricky subject. What I do know is that I hate when people act condescending towards her, like she isn't capable of doing certain things. Your last idea really hit home for me, because it's a topic that's not discussed nearly enough. People with disabilites are not here for abled's peoples "lifespiration" nor are they here to remind people of how "lucky" they are. Overall, I think this is both an issue that needs to be discussed more but one that requires more voices of people with disabilites, as it is their lives and treatment that is in discussion.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very sophisticated post, Anoushka. I appreciate that you don't go for the obvious line between ignorance and knowledge but rather make an unexpected comparison using being disabled as the boundary. I also especially like that you flip the idea of who is in the cave and who is outside of it. Nice work
ReplyDeleteHere's a knowledge question: "How do we know the limits of our own knowledge?"
or "To what extent can taking on another's perspective, using various ways of knowing, lead us to better knowledge?