From Plato's Allegory of the Cave to more contemporary imageries of brightness and dimness, light has played an important role in which we understand ourselves and our environment. As post-Englightenment beings, we see it as far too simplistic to imagine how knowledge is supposed to represent light, and ignorance darkness.
But is it so uninteresting to live in the 'darkness'? Of course, many in the Middle East would profess that living in the darkness of repression and corruption is no way to live. But let us consider highly developed, democratic states, where peoples choose to live in darkness in one way or another, for one reason or another. For those who fear they are to be blinded by the lightness of outside, they take comfort in their insular and familiar surroundings. They are content in their lot, never wondering what it is like to live in other parts of the world, or even how the people in the next village live. If they were to denounce something, they would not bother to challenge its legitimacy on its strongest grounds, but on its weakest grounds. It is all too easily to criticize religion, for example, on one of their more outrageous grounds.
It is also evident that for some people, the light is too painful in its all-consuming brightness. The harsh light of reality shows the world in its true essence - both fascinating and terrifying. Perhaps this is one mechanism to cope with loss or tragedy, you try and block out what is all too crystal clear under the light. For the rehabilitating drug-user opening their eyes to the squalor and terror around them to political philosophers reading ever more deeply into theories which continue to discuss imperfect visions of the perfect society, this does not necessarily make you happier, but makes the world seem less comprehensible in its different varieties and complexities. If you find yourself in a country, you discover your continent, other continents, the world is not an oyster - but a incomprehensible sphere which you cannot even start to understand. One ray of light might enthuse your curiosity but a brilliant sunshine? It is often from the midsts of darkness, that people grow to be the people they are.
This is worth remembering, both on an individual level, and also on a broader socio-political one.
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