cogito ergo sum treader
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- Posted: Wed, 25 Jan 2012 03:48:46 +0000
For three years, a 2.5 gallon fish tank sat on my dresser that I would spend hours staring at. He was "long-finned rosy barb" as the pet store referred to it but for sake of not dealing with complications when talking about him, I both decided it had a gender and the name Riuke.
Those moments when I watched him, fed him, or chased Riuke with a small net - because the filter needed changing and the tank cleaning - I often considered him lucky. He didn't have to work, didn't worry about the assignment due in class in four days, nor taxes, family, bullies or any of the other contravening issue we as humans constantly strive through or die in. All he had was the time to worry about and where his feces was in case I forgot to feed him - which, I admit did happen occasionally.
Life in a fish bowl must have been great. I never considered otherwise until my friend had followed me to my room - whenever I'd realize I had forgotten to feed Riuke I often dropped what I was doing to make sure he was given his pinch of sinking-pellet fish food - and the conversation that followed broke my heart for poor Riuke. "I don't know about you, but if I were a fish, I'd kill myself." My friend, needless to say, wasn't what one might call an optimist. Though with the new and conflicting angle on Riuke, I felt the necessity to inquire more. This was his response:
With this in mind now, Riuke is a model of the hard working modern society. Many adults spend most of their time in an office. Sitting in their own personal tank. From the day we are enrolled into preschool until one retires it seems an endless mockery of a routine race to death. A beehive of people swarming to and from the office, doing something they don't like for a salary they wish were bigger. One can't avoid conflicts in life and this is a deep internal, and phobic controversy rampaging within my head: People seem miserable with this life style but they do nothing. Thus, the learned helplessness of the Fish Bowl Society.
edit
The Fish Bowl society is composed of the unaware. A mass of those who are forever sleeping and mindlessly bumbling through their days never gaining or losing anything. These people aren't happy with what they have but they move nowhere no matter the pace they run. This is the concept of being valueless but not caring. Ideally, the Fish Bowl Society is composed of a majority who chose to be like the cells in their own body. Merely completing tasks then to die off. With this said, it means that one cell is replaceable but masses of cells are not. I am, however, looking through a microscope focused on one cell and that cell right now represents you, the reader. I address you individually not as a whole, because the concept runs that as a whole, the push a society that is structured on office jobs and manufacturing, etc. it is the whole that is important, not the individual.
Considering the heightening suicide rates, divorces and homeless folk during the current recession, the Fish Bowl Society doesn't seem to work for the better of the individual's well being. Ultimately this means the failure of the organism as a whole. There are solutions. Yet, "easier said than done," "we live in a state of denial," and "ignorance is bliss." The world runs on money so we must endure this horrible life style we're born into.
My questions remain: Why must life be so complicated? Is the Fish Bowl Society necessary?
Note: I noticed in a prior post of mine that my lack of responses are questionable so perhaps an explanation should be given? I enjoy reading what people have to say, it's a sort of expression of my attempt at unbiased views - I suppose. However, if any of you make an irresistible point I may be obliged to address it in this OP, so check for a red "edited" over a paragraph.
-also, I fixed a few grammatical errors and sentences that were over all obscure.
Thank you for taking the time to read my short essay of a scrambled opinion. I look forward to reading your opinions.
P.s I'm going to try to post consistently so keep an eye out for my next post or send a friend's request and you'll get a notice in your friend's recent events box.
Those moments when I watched him, fed him, or chased Riuke with a small net - because the filter needed changing and the tank cleaning - I often considered him lucky. He didn't have to work, didn't worry about the assignment due in class in four days, nor taxes, family, bullies or any of the other contravening issue we as humans constantly strive through or die in. All he had was the time to worry about and where his feces was in case I forgot to feed him - which, I admit did happen occasionally.
Life in a fish bowl must have been great. I never considered otherwise until my friend had followed me to my room - whenever I'd realize I had forgotten to feed Riuke I often dropped what I was doing to make sure he was given his pinch of sinking-pellet fish food - and the conversation that followed broke my heart for poor Riuke. "I don't know about you, but if I were a fish, I'd kill myself." My friend, needless to say, wasn't what one might call an optimist. Though with the new and conflicting angle on Riuke, I felt the necessity to inquire more. This was his response:
"Could you imagine what it's like swimming around in a tank like that? Outside there's this huge world but due to your physical limitations your stuck inside that tiny crumb, forced to live in your own puny world. Ketherine, you've woken me up at three in the morning because your room is 'far too empty', well what about Riuke? Riuke can't call some one when he's feeling lonely or depressed. Then again, maybe he doesn't realize he's miserable. Maybe Riuke is too stupid to realize there's something outside those plastic walls, or a bigger bowl of water with more fish."
With this in mind now, Riuke is a model of the hard working modern society. Many adults spend most of their time in an office. Sitting in their own personal tank. From the day we are enrolled into preschool until one retires it seems an endless mockery of a routine race to death. A beehive of people swarming to and from the office, doing something they don't like for a salary they wish were bigger. One can't avoid conflicts in life and this is a deep internal, and phobic controversy rampaging within my head: People seem miserable with this life style but they do nothing. Thus, the learned helplessness of the Fish Bowl Society.
edit
The Fish Bowl society is composed of the unaware. A mass of those who are forever sleeping and mindlessly bumbling through their days never gaining or losing anything. These people aren't happy with what they have but they move nowhere no matter the pace they run. This is the concept of being valueless but not caring. Ideally, the Fish Bowl Society is composed of a majority who chose to be like the cells in their own body. Merely completing tasks then to die off. With this said, it means that one cell is replaceable but masses of cells are not. I am, however, looking through a microscope focused on one cell and that cell right now represents you, the reader. I address you individually not as a whole, because the concept runs that as a whole, the push a society that is structured on office jobs and manufacturing, etc. it is the whole that is important, not the individual.
Considering the heightening suicide rates, divorces and homeless folk during the current recession, the Fish Bowl Society doesn't seem to work for the better of the individual's well being. Ultimately this means the failure of the organism as a whole. There are solutions. Yet, "easier said than done," "we live in a state of denial," and "ignorance is bliss." The world runs on money so we must endure this horrible life style we're born into.
My questions remain: Why must life be so complicated? Is the Fish Bowl Society necessary?
Note: I noticed in a prior post of mine that my lack of responses are questionable so perhaps an explanation should be given? I enjoy reading what people have to say, it's a sort of expression of my attempt at unbiased views - I suppose. However, if any of you make an irresistible point I may be obliged to address it in this OP, so check for a red "edited" over a paragraph.
-also, I fixed a few grammatical errors and sentences that were over all obscure.
Thank you for taking the time to read my short essay of a scrambled opinion. I look forward to reading your opinions.
~Ketherine Treader
P.s I'm going to try to post consistently so keep an eye out for my next post or send a friend's request and you'll get a notice in your friend's recent events box.
