career, as he engaged with questionable characters and in unethical business practices that increased his personal wealth. In pursuing personal agendas, he also seemed incapable of acting outside of personal interest or in support of the interests of others. He readily disparaged and belittled others; he engaged in multiple affairs, resulting in multiple divorces and marriages; and he used his position and wealth to assault women, ultimately becoming convicted of sexual assault. It can be argued Trump was an individual who chose to remain in the cave after seeing the fire and used his knowledge not to better the lives of those around him but to advance his narcissistic tendencies.
Moreover, once he set his sights on elected office, Trump used many of the same tactics to acquire power. He engaged in racist attacks to gain support of certain demographic groups; he belittled opponents in the primary and engaged in multiple lies during the general election. And once in power, Trump used his standing to benefit himself: he let it be known that foreign leaders should stay at his hotel in Washington, he provided huge tax breaks to himself and other wealthy individuals, and he placed family members who lacked political knowledge and experience in positions of power so they would benefit financially. He also disrupted international relations and global stability: he removed America from or significantly impaired its work involving critically important agreements (the Paris Climate Accord, the Transpacific Partnership, threatening NATO), while he promoted the interests of authoritarian figures whom he admired (Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, Viktor Orbán). And, of course, he continued to lie: it is documented that Trump told 30,573 lies or mistruths during his first term in in office. And, in driving toward reelection, Trump continued to act in the narcissistic way he always had.
This is a man who was not and apparently remains not interested in searching for the ‘Idea of the Good’ to find what was truly right and beautiful so to help others; but he is instead a man who continued to live in darkness of the cave, using his personal knowledge to harm those who did not possess such knowledge and whom he did not regard as his equals. In effect Trump reveals the nature of the individual who chooses to remain in the cave: he would be a person who uses the little knowledge gained (from leaving the cave and seeing the sun and then returning to the cave) to exploit the condition of the less powerful.
Instead of explaining to his peers that fire is the cause of the shadows, and that the shadows are not real people but illusions, Trump would play off the shadows, making cave dwellers believe the shadows are real people, quite possibly manipulating cave dwellers’ understanding of the shadows by creating and aligning new sounds or names to manipulate the messages being sent. Trump would effectively act towards the shadows in the cave as he does now on the campaign trail, mimicking people, renaming people, misleading people, lying to people, manipulating people’s understanding of facts or events to gain support and advance his personal agenda while receiving praise and awards that stroke his ego.
And the cave dwellers, like mass men of authoritarian regimes, would sit before the shadows as Trump supporters now do before
television screens and campaign rallies taking it all in as if such represented reality and truth, not knowing or understanding that all is illusion and that they are being manipulated being chained as they are to the screen not seeing things as they are
Long story short: Trump did not and does not possess the character and temperament – or practice the kinds of action – one would wish of an enlightened leader.
Aligning Biden to the Allegory of the Cave
Biden was not born to wealth or privilege, experiencing restrictions brought on through poverty and class. He had to raise himself up by his bootstraps to first graduate from law school before becoming the youngest member of the U.S. Senate, where he focused on justice and
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