Asha Coutrier

UWRT 1102
Ms. Voltz
April 20, 2016
In Platos Cave Reflection
Although I was previously aware of the tendency to be desensitized and lose
interest in the horrific and the gore-ridden, Susan Sontags piece reminded me that not
everyone could grasp the intensity of the event being discussed without a visual aspect
being included. Current society has begun to rely heavily on the shortened tidbits given
by conventional news outlets, rather than delving deeper behind the shallow, for lack
of a better term, reports that all give an overview of the subject and call it a day
afterwards, which is worrying because very rarely, unless its extremely inflammatory,
will those same conventional outlets follow up on previous reports. Also people tend to
surround themselves with opinions that justify their own beliefs, which everyone,
including myself, is guilty of. However, I try to check alternative yet reputable sources
like Vice, but everything has a slant regardless of how slight it is.
The least we can do as people, is remain educated on both sides of the issue, even
if we do nothing to contribute to it. This way there is no excuse for the spewing of
ignorance amongst one another; and, also knowledge leads to more of a driving force
when it comes to doing something about the problem. Also, at least there would be less
surprise behind the reveling of seedy activities because the aforementioned knowledge
would lead to the assumption that it was occurring long before it was revealed to the

public. Individuals, according to Sontag, would fare better if they paid more attention to
the older forms of media that have less framing that contemporary images. Photos taken
have sometimes been deliberately staged to present a certain image to incite outrage,
terror and anger in the populace. What Sontag aims to express is to break out of the preconceived views set by both yourself and your surroundings.