I often wonder how my beliefs can be my own.

Having opinions that are not the persuasions of others is virtually impossible. There are a few exceptions. If someone says eat cauliflower because it tastes good, I’ll pass on that because I don’t like the smell or the taste of it. If I’m persuaded by a friend to go see a movie that he says is great, I won’t agree with his opinion if I didn’t enjoy it.

But with all the talking heads on TV and social media, sometimes I feel like a puppet, and everyone from everywhere is pulling my strings to get me to think a certain way.

Greek philosopher Plato told a story called “The Allegory of the Cave.” Several people have been chained inside a dark cave since their childhoods. Their heads are fixed so they can only see what’s in front of them, which are shadows on the wall of objects cast from the light of fires set by people behind them that the prisoners cannot see. The prisoners become accustomed to the shadows, and this is their comfortable idea of reality.

One of the prisoners is freed from the cave, but he becomes angry and has to be dragged out. He knows nothing of the real world and does not want to go. In fact, when he gets outside, the sun is burning his eyes. He wants to return to the cave, but after a slow adjustment, he realizes the world outside has so much more to offer.

The freed prisoner returns to the cave to tell the others about his exciting new world, but he becomes blind from the transition of the sun to the dark cave. The other prisoners become angry and scared when they see what happened and they threaten to kill anyone who tries to take them out of the cave.

The allegory contains many forms of symbolism that we might apply to our lives today. The chains that prevent the prisoners from leaving the cave represent that they are trapped in ignorance. The shadows cast on the walls of the cave represent the superficial truth, which is the illusion that the prisoners see in the cave and were put there by people who have them chained to the wall.

The freed prisoner understands that what he saw in the dark world he lived in is only a shadow and not reality. The sun that glared into his eyes represents the higher personal truth of his own ideas. The light further represents his wisdom, but then the blindness refers to the man’s return to ignorance when he leaves the light and comes back to the dark cave. The others chained to the wall accept being controlled because it’s easier than if they had independence.

Plato’s allegory might also suggest that, in my case, my head is fixed upon a false sense of reality and the puppeteers who are pulling my strings make me think how they think. They want me to take comfort in knowing that there are others who think like I do and that I do not want to be isolated by stepping outside the box of the mob mentality.

Take this presidential election. The puppet masters of the media pull everyone in both directions. Some of my friends have already had their strings pulled into supporting one of the candidates or the other. They tell me they’ve made up their own minds, which I think cannot be further from the truth.

If I don’t approve of either candidate, then the only decision that stands true to me is to not vote at all, but then I’d hear the scorn from those who say I didn’t do my civic duty for my country.

I’m having my strings pulled about what to believe with the coronavirus issue as well. Some medical experts are trying to convince me that it’s extremely deadly while others say nearly everyone who gets it survives.

The FDA is promising there will be no side effects of the upcoming vaccine, but there are reasons to think otherwise. I watch FDA approved prescription commercials that list horrendous possible side effects, many that are worse than the symptoms of the actual condition. Five years after Americans get the coronavirus vaccine, I could very well see ads on TV that say, “If you took the COVID-19 vaccine in 2020 and now have kidney or liver failure, call the attorneys, Johnson, Smith and Jackson.”

I used to tell my students to think for themselves. Go and research unbiased information before making a decision that should be aligned with your self-truth. The problem is that nothing we read, nothing we see, and nothing we know is void of the opinions of those who deliver the information to us. You can lead a horse to water and now you can make him drink.

“What’s in your mind?” asks someone. I answer, “The combined opinions of the media, Facebook, a few dozen friends, 1,000 advertisements, and a little kid inside me who says, “Do whatever you think is fun.” Someone else asks, “Well then, who are you?” I say, “I don’t really know. Go ask my puppeteer.”

As I follow the yellow brick road toward the Emerald City in search of my self- truths, I come upon a warning sign left by Dorothy.

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.

Rich Strack can be reached at katehep11@gmail.com.