The Human Zoo
The comforts of civilization have created such a docile and dependent breed of humans that it is likely most would not survive if you took away the dependencies sustaining their current way of life.
What is the price we pay for modernity? There are certain levels of structure necessary within a civilization in order to optimize freedom. We are born into a social contract that requires us to play within the confines of our constructed game. Money is our currency. Our nation is our identity. A total abandonment of the social contract would mean choosing not to participate in modern society, which even for the hermit, goes against our tribal nature and need for belonging.
However, we must begin to take a hard look at the current price of modernity. While there is no denying that modernism has brought a greater sense of global stability, the spirit within the average man has paid the price. There has never been a greater disconnect between humans and their own true nature, and we have constructed the perfect conditions for global totalitarianism and merging with machines as a result of our negligence of spirit.
Who are we? What have we become? Take a good look in the mirror and tell me what you see. All the plights of humanity exist within you as they do me. There is no greater reflection of the world than what you see when you gaze into the infinite abyss of your own eyes. If we spent more time in that reflection process, it seems unlikely that we would reach the state that we are currently at.
When I look into my own eyes, I see shackles placed on my spirit as a price to pay for the social contract. I see a life of previous despondency, comfort, and conformity to social norms and ideologies. I see just a shell of my own potential optimized in this physical reality. I know I am capable of so much more, yet I find myself unable to break certain chains of dependency to this system we live within, as personal optimization often comes with the price of ego death and letting go of who I thought I was. I see that within our social contract, we have been sold half-truths about our own nature. We are given just enough to keep us coming back to the mouse trap, but always find ourselves suffering the consequences of an enslavement to our dependencies without the recognition of why we are perpetually unfulfilled. Something is off, yet we can’t quite figure out what that something is. In theory, we are living out the parameters of the social contract with great success. Shouldn’t we be reaping the rewards of our perceived success in more than just a material sense?
Bring to mind the tiger within a zoo. Envision the life that this once wild animal gets to live. It’s fed, safe from the chaos and unpredictability of nature, and ultimately given all that it needs to live a life of longevity within the confines of its encapsulation. It has all it needs to survive, so is that enough?
Despite being provided for all the perceived essentials of life, we naturally feel a sense of sorrow when we observe zoo animals. Sure, they are taken care of. But we look at them and recognize the key element missing that makes an animal wild and domesticated. In the wild, there is an element of unpredictability and freedom that cannot be simulated in an artificial environment. No matter how extravagant the zookeepers design the cage, it will never be quite the same as having a home within nature.
Our sorrow for the encaged tiger is the key to understanding the predicament we find for ourselves. As a product of our social contract and societal conditioning, we have created an elaborately designed human zoo, domesticating ourselves as a species to live within the comforts of modernity. The cost of our system has been a stripping of our wild nature, an element so fundamental to who we are that life becomes perceivably meaningless without it. This creates the notion that meaning can only be achieved externally, and as we fail to find it through our materialistic ventures, we cling further to safety of our cages and only look to expand the totalitarian grasp it holds over us into the world around us. To be forever enclosed within the confines of our own cage is to never understand true freedom or what lies possible in the chaos of nature. We have been programmed to view unpredictability as a threat to our survival, when the reality is it only poses a threat to the delusions of preconditioned programming within your social contract. The cage has long served as a veil covering reality, but when you get a glimpse outside, there is no unseeing the infinite potential that lies within our true nature.
Like many zoo animals, it is possible that humanity is too far removed from nature to make a return to it as home. The comforts of civilization have created such a docile and dependent breed of humans that it is likely most would not survive if you took away the dependencies sustaining their current way of life. However, despite us being trapped within the confines of a human zoo since the dawn of modernity, a select few are beginning to wake up to their cages. The paradox of the cage is that we have always had the key to open it ourselves. We can choose to be free from the shackles in our mind at any point, as the only thing preventing us from living in conscious connection with nature is our own perception. When we can be present, here and now in this moment, we are presented with the opportunity to be self-reliant and radically responsible. While many of us have lost touch with the survival skills that sustained our ancestors before us, the roots of that nature still live within us and are accessible. The only thing preventing us from reprogramming our mind is the fear of the unknown that doing so will ultimately bring.
The choice to exit your cage is a decision that can only be made on an individual level. There are those who will cling forever to the dependencies that this system provides for survival, regardless of whatever results there are for doing so. Many question how people are willing to give up freedom and expand the totalitarian impulse. The people making that choice have never lived free to begin with. They have forever been a slave to their social programming, never experiencing true free will or making a choice that was their own to begin with. External totalitarianism will always be justifiable so long as their entire identity is built on the foundation of an inner totalitarian, and this is the direction that our society finds itself moving in. As our dependencies to the human zoo grow, so do the intricacies of the cage. Eventually, we will create a system so elaborately designed that escape from the cage will not only be impossible, but inconceivable. Many are already at this point, but if you are here reading this, there’s a good chance you can see beyond the veil that is your dependencies. As long as we have our own perception, we always have a reason to remain hopeful.
The true element that gives humanity a purpose and meaning is our own wild spirit. That spirit can never truly be killed, but it can become unperceivable. The false gods of technology and innovation will only continue to attempt to bind us to this matrix, and it is our choice how far along we choose to go. Become consciously aware of who you are and allow that to be the guiding force for you moving forward. Living only within the confines of a social contract will inevitably lead to a forced self-sacrifice of your spirit for “the greater good.” However, many have failed to realize there is no greater good without recognizing the divine worth that lives within the heart of every man. The smallest minority is the individual, and the foundation for the world we all know to be possible, living outside the human zoo, is built on recognizing and honoring the sacred that lives within all of us.