Austin Fontaine 
Megan Novelli While attempting to find inspiration for my first blog post as hard as I tried to avoid the most popular post, Plato’s Allegory of the Cave was the one thing that I desired to write about the most. Over the years I have studied Plato’s Allegory thoroughly and it is something that still fascinates me to this day. In high school I actually read Plato’s dialogue of this allegory in his work, The Republic. I did not fully understand it in high school but after re-reading it a couple of days ago was amazing at how easy it was to understand not only because I had a better understanding of it but because our culture has seemed to embrace it and demonstrate it through works of art, stories, and even through the music.
Recently I have added a new folk rock band to my list of favorites known as Mumford and Sons. Their song Little Lion Man was what made me interested in the band but after buying the rest of one of their albums I came across a song titled The Cave. When I heard the title of this song I thought of Plato almost instantly. While I do not think that this song is talking about Plato’s Allegory entirely I do think that it contains some similar ideas such as the lines: “Now let me at the truth, which will refresh your mind” and “So come out of your cave walking on your hands, and see the world hanging upside down, You can understand dependence, when you know the maker’s land”. While some might consider this a stretch I think that this song has many similarities as it seems that the person is attempting to get away from the misconceptions and the presuppositions that he has had and to embrace the freedom of knowing the true forms of reality.
Attached is the link for the song, I could not find just the song so I though I would include the music video. I could not find references in the video to the cave but thought I’d still include it. Hope yall enjoy it.
Mary Tomkins
1:42 am, 09.06.10
I went and listened to that song, and I really like it. I like how the Stoics’ philosophy can also be heard in it. The line “I’ll find strength in pain” is pretty clearly stoicism, even to someone like me who doesn’t interpret music very well. I also like the references to Greek mythology with the idea of the Sirens.
Jeremiah Blalock
11:47 am, 09.06.10
although i cannot listen to the song right now, i do agree with your first statement of how you view things differently now, and therefore understand fully what you couldn’t before. Just like in the cave, when you first heard this story you were most likely stuck in your separate chains looking at the wall, but now that you’ve broken away, and if broken fully or enough to see is on your own individual progression, you can see the truth and meaning in most things, and can never turn away from it.