Allegory of the Cave

      Truth is beauty and beauty truth...unless of course you're sitting chained in a cave facing the wall. In this allegory, the shadows viewed on a daily basis by the prisoners is their life and therefor their reality, and truth. But when one is freed, he enters the light and sees the direct causes of the reality in which he and his fellow captives have been subject to. His true reality now becomes a false reality, as he views reality unmasked. Truth is only perceived and can differ person to person. Truth is not a tangible reliable fact because truth is never definite and real. Reality is real and reality masks truth and falsehood equally. To state everything clearly, as this is a complicated matter, reality is true, but the truth is not the reality.
      For example, I go to a restaurant and order the Chef Surprise Special. I rave about my delicious meal and ask what it was. The chef says its a tender cut of lamb sauteed in something etc. The next day I hear my friend talk about how he saw a TV show where they ate rats. "Gross", I say. "I never would eat rat, I only eat tender lamb sauteed in something." Well, little do I know that the chef ran out of lamb yesterday and in a panic, put some rat traps by the dumpster and called the dish of the day the Chef Surprise Special. Here, the reality is I DO eat rat, but the truth in my mind is I DO NOT. My truth is not my reality, but my reality is true. The same goes for the cave prisoners, and the same goes for the world. Truth is perception. Reality is, of course, real and the two react off each other.