You might be a heifer if...

The dialogue in Book 9 kept me flipping the pages with eager anticipation of what was coming next. The different cities were interesting, but when it got to the part about who experiences the most pleasure...yes. t was so refreshing to read and relate to Socrates (because sometimes I honestly feel like he's talking in circles and what is his point anyway??). Socrates and Glaucon continued their conversation and dove into the topic of pleasure and who it is that truly experiences pleasure? Is it the lover of wisdom, the lover of victory, or the lover of gain? Socrates argues that it is the lover of wisdom because "the kind of pleasure connected with the vision of what is cannot be tasted by anyone except the lover of wisdom" (582c). Socrates further explains the necessity of pain so that pleasure might be fully appreciated and how those who live in darkness and never experience true pleasure  will see the absence of pain as pleasure. It reminds me of the allegory of the cave. The man who comes up from the cave is blinded by the light and considers it painful. However, the longer he endures the pain and pushes through, searching for the truth and escaping the shadows, the less painful it becomes and he gets a taste of true pleasure. Of course, the descent back into the cave to bring others out of darkness is often painful, because it involves stumbling through the shadows and ridicule. But the descent is a necessary part of experiencing the pleasure because only the heartless would condemn fellow humans to sitting in shadows because they know no other option. At least venture into the darkness to offer a glimpse of light. This is the pursuit and journey of truth. In Section 586a, Socrates gives a cattle analogy that is super-relevant to our world today- people are enjoying diluted pleasure that is less-than the best compared to what they could have, but because of lack of virtue and ignorance they go through life without looking for something higher:

"They don't look upward toward what is truly above, nor are they ever brought to it (why sometimes you have to pull people reluctantly out of the cave); and they aren't filled with what really is, nor do they taste the pleasure that is sure and pure; rather, after the fashion of cattle, always looking down and with their heads bent to earth and table they feed, fattening themselves... and for the sake of getting more of these things, they kick and butt...killing each other because they are insatiable; for they are not filling the part of themselves that is, or can contain anything, with things that are."

So it is necessary that they experience pain; that they might see the need to look up and long for pleasure higher than the shadows.