Ignorance and Insanity: Atlantis

“But afterwards there occurred violent earthquakes and floods; and in a single day and night of misfortune all your warlike men in a body sank into the earth, and the island of Atlantis in like manner disappeared in the depths of the sea.” - Plato, Timaeus/Critias

Atlantis has been a pop-culture icon, a symbol of a magical place and tragedy used throughout the ages in stories, songs, art, film and many other media.  Originally mentioned by Plato in his dialogue Timaeus (and after Critias), people have been searching for this lost city or whatever may have inspired the myth for centuries.  It makes for great mythology, but there are some people who have the ignorance to believe they can find it, and the insanity to keep trying.  The problem with their search is this: Plato introduced Atlantis in his dialogue Timaeus as a hypothetical city.  Its ruins aren't at the bottom of the ocean, they don't exist.  Plato was a great philosopher, using stories to pass along his concepts and opinions, and Atlantis was just one more story used to cushion his philosophy for the ease of consumption.  The vast majority of people who believe in Atlantis have come to this belief out of a yearning for such a city to actually exist after hearing of it in so many different media, without ever having read the original work it appeared in.  Some, even when faced with this revelation still believe it exists.  Personally, I love the concept of it, same as I love the concepts of Neverland, Oz, and Wonderland, but an extremely small number of people believe any of those places exist, knowing that they belong in stories, while many people, highly educated people even, believe that Atlantis is just further down the Atlantic shelf, or inspired by ruins ancient Greeks may have found while diving (despite the fact that they would likely have been unable to see anything at the depths most of these ruins are at without modern equipment even if they could swim that far down unaided).  Eldorado may have been used to mock the Conquistadors search for wealth and keep them as far away form the natives cities as possible, but Atlantis continues to be a source of disappointment for those too ignorant or insane to realize they're chasing a wisp, a myth that wasn't even believed in when it was first mentioned.