> Expand on this -- particularly, explain what you mean by the "_sort_ of
> equivalency of all cognitions."
Plato's dialogues assume the equivalence of cognition which needed to be explained in the first place, i.e. the assumption that everyone could automatically distinguish between torches and the bright sunlight, between the false copy and the true original. Knowing and knowledge are historical categories, not gifts of the gods.
> Millions believe X.
Belief has surprisingly little to do with it. Ideology in the Matrix/total system is simply what things appear to be: malls, highways, offices, the media culture. That's the astounding power of the Matrix: it doesn't have to convince anyone of anything, it rules because it *is*, i.e. coheres as a system. But this is also its weakness: every locality becomes the site of global contradictions.
-- DRR