Treat Me Like a Dog
We take a wild creature and micromanage its behavior to gain control and become their master, which they obey. To discipline them, we control their bathroom breaks and feeding, to minimize their natural instincts, and in return we get their respect. We don’t feel bad about this, since we see what we interpret as love is given in return. But as Michel Foucault describes in his book Discipline and Punish, humans are being disciplined the same way we are disciplining the dog. Through power and knowledge we are under a social control that regulates us by time, and turn humans into mechanical, rather then spiritual bodies.
The American dream has been imposed on us to insure that we will do our best to follow the rules. We have been promised equal opportunity for everybody to be able to get the reward if we work hard enough. We have been drilled to follow this construct, and if we don’t, we are wasting time. To keep our souls alive, we have been taught to put our faith in a higher power, such as god. This concept also helps to keep us in check even when we are “off the clock”, the idea that god is watching our every step. But even if we follow the rules and reach our goals in life, we are still owned by the people in power. The investment in the big house and the expensive car just makes us more of a prisoner in the system. We get the privilege to have a longer leash, but with more pressure to keep producing, so we don’t fall down in the ranking.
Beside from the trained body, what is left of being human, and does anyone know where the training ends and the self begins? If we didn’t have any rules to follow, would we still crave order, or would simple things, like having our bare feet touching the ground to feel at one with nature have importance?
The thought that vacation is available for us to rest and clear our minds, feed our souls, becomes a dream that is never going to become a reality. Pressure is put on us that we can be eliminated from our position if we do take the time off. It is also an opportunity to spend our time making more money, instead of connecting with self.
Even the idea of retirement has become a scary thought. On one hand we fear that we might not survive economically, but also our primed bodies might reject the idea to not work. What are we suppose to use our time and body for when we retire? The body has been exhausted from work and is not useful for the men in power anymore, and therefore making us feel worthless. With fear we are controlled, and instead of questioning the fear we give in to the control. Like dogs, we are pleasing our master by following the rules, and by doing so we feel as we belong and fulfill a purpose, but we give up the quest to find our way back to self.
