Some Ways to Put a Human Being in a Cage...

[KurtNYC]

- Remove as far as possible all opportunities for meaningful self-expression and service. Instead, coerce people into dead-end labor just to pay the bills and service the debts. Seduce others into living off such labor of others.

- Cut people off from nature and from place. At most let nature be a spectacle or venue for recreation, but remove any real intimacy with the land. Source food and medicine from thousands of miles away.

- Move life – especially children's lives – indoors. Let as many sounds as possible be manufactured sounds, and as many sights be virtual sights.

- Destroy community bonds by casting people into a society of strangers, in which you don't rely on and needn't even know by name the people living around you.

- Create constant survival anxiety by making survival depend on money, and then making money artificially scarce. Administer a money system in which there is always more debt than there is money.

- Divide the world up into property, and confine people to spaces that they own or pay to occupy.

- Replace the infinite variety of the natural and artisanal world, where every object is unique, with the sameness of commodity goods.

- Reduce the intimate realm of social interaction to the nuclear family and put that family in a box. Destroy the tribe, the village, the clan, and the extended family as a functioning social unit.

- Make children stay indoors in age-segregated classrooms in a competitive environment where they are conditioned to perform tasks that they don't really care about or want to do, for the sake of external rewards.

- Destroy the local stories and relationships that build identity, and replace them with celebrity news, sports team identification, brand identification, and world views imposed by authority.

- Delegitimize or illegalize folk knowledge of how to heal and care for one another, and replace it with the paradigm of the “patient” dependent on medical authorities for health.

http://www.opendemocracy.net/charles-eisenstein/gateway-drug-to-what

Maybe those aren't just "some ways" but rather one big way. To which I would add:

- Be sure to tell them all how "Free" they are at every opportunity.

[handmade34]

1. K&R

[hobbit709]

2. We're not even slaves, we're serfs

Slaves have to be housed and fed. Serfs are on their own.

[dreamnightwind]

3. That's excellent! K & R

Also anyone who likes this OP might be interested in

http://www.transitionus.org/about-us

The Transition Movement is a vibrant, grassroots movement that seeks to build community resilience in the face of such challenges as peak oil, climate change and the economic crisis. It represents one of the most promising ways of engaging people in strengthening their communities against the effects of these challenges, resulting in a life that is more abundant, fulfilling, equitable and socially connected.

We believe that we can make the transition to a more sustainable world. We hope that you will join us.

[mountain grammy]

11. Thanks for the link. Bookmarked for further study.

[DetlefK]

4. Freedom! (TM)

It sure is weird how Hollywood action-movies boast "freedom" as the main motivation for the heroes. And yet the "freedom" they mean is the freedom to abandon your former life and reshape it to THEIR ideals.


Example: Gladiator.
Right at the beginning, the germans are fighting off roman invaders in order to defend their culture, language and political structure. They are fighting for their freedom. And yet they are the bad guys, because their kind of freedom is the wrong kind of freedom, because it doesn't include beautiful, rich people living in a bloated, corrupt empire with socially removed rulers and cheap entertainment for the masses.


Example: 300 #2
The Persians would unite Greece under the peaceful rule of one king, whereas the Greeks fight for the "freedom" to wage endless wars against each other, burning down villages and raping mothers in front of their daughters.
Why did Eva Green's character go crazy? Because she was traumatized by a warfare that was totally normal in Greece. Who burned down her village, raped and killed her family and sold her into slavery? "Hoplites"? That's a category of infantry, not some faction. You ever wondered, why she hates all of Greece when it was a single faction that destroyed her village? Because having a culprit, seeing her as a traumatized victim, would vindicate her desire for revenge. And her revenge for murder and rape must not be allowed to outweigh the desire to defend a beautiful word like "freedom".
And what freedom? She offers the hero the ultimate freedom to join her and do whatever he wants. Instead he chooses the "freedom" to be a non-questioning patriot and stick to the rules he despises.

[japple]

5. The constant noise that began sometime in the 90s where every business played

music nonstop infuriates me. I don't know why they think this is pleasing. It is a huge distraction for me. It is one reason that I don't eat at many chain restaurants (crappy food aside) and why I loathe the American grocery stores, department stores, most businesses. What purpose does this music/noise serve?

[tblue37]

9. That is one of the reasons I cherish certain aspects of my

severe hearing loss. I don't wear my hearing aids unless I am teaching, conversing, or watching TV or movies. That means I am not exposed to most of the noise pollution that keeps hearing people so much on edge all the time. I have always believed that my mild temper is a result of not being relentlessly bombarded by the noise of the modern world. I think that being exposed to less noise would help people calm down and become less likely to fly into a rage all the time.

[japple]

29. A friend who wears hearing aids said that it is almost impossible for her to carry on

conversations with others in those restaurants where the music is blaring. I find it annoying/distracting, but it is a major pain for her. We were in a chain restaurant where a group of us meet after volunteering for the local spay/neuter transport. It is a buffet, so most folks can find something to eat. The music was loud and we complained to the waitress. She told us that she couldn't do anything about it, as "the manager sets the volume." As we were paying our checks, the manager asked if everything was okay, and we told him about the volume problem. He said that he would speak to his staff and that he COULD/WOULD turn it down in the future if it was too loud. I think I'm going to start complaining about it everywhere I go.

[japple]

30. Further to this discussion: I am one of those people who sing along to music in the car,

in my home, in the shower, everywhere. I play it loud, I sing it loud, and I enjoy it. Of course, I live alone and my cats/dogs don't mind. But when one bursts into song in the grocery store, heads start to turn and store personnel begin to go on the alert. I love musicals, and have often dreamed about popping out of an elevator or stopping my car in the middle of crowded street, bleating forth a chorus of "Singing in the Rain" or "Gotta Dance." Well, that only happens in the movies and I would more than likely be locked up for doing it, but I feel there would be justification in my actions because the music was/is always playing and I just couldn't/can't help myself. "Oh, tie a yellow ribbon 'round that old oak tree~~~~"

[KurtNYC]

10. It is psychology of retail stuff

They want to use music to change your mood to one where you will buy more or move more quickly, or buy more alcohol (loud bars). Las Vegas uses some fairly obvious and infamous techniques but increasingly we see similar rat maze stuff being deployed across retail.

For better or worse they are starting to get it right:

And while many retail managers are convinced that dazzling decorations, smiling shopkeepers in red Santa hats, and recordings of Mariah Carey’s All I want for Christmas is You will pull customers in during the festive season, ironically it is quite the reverse, according to Puccinelli. “Shops tend to create very positive upbeat retail environments in the run-up to the holidays but the customer is often highly stressed, anxious and half-depressed with financial concerns,” she explains. “Ultimately, it works against the retailer.”

http://www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk/features/psychology-shopping

[doxydad]

18. I would like to add...

I must be getting old, but this 'music' they play is soooo damned loud, and there's no lyrics, you cannot understand it. I know that I'm 62, but this isn't music, it truly is crap. And the worst: Autotuned. makes my skin crawl. When I'm out somewhere, i'll ask a store clerk or waiter: "if they're playing this here, what do you think they're playing in HELL today?.." Yeah, it's just that bad. I was a DJ for 35 PLUS years, still fill in. This garbage that they call music these days is truly horrible. END OF RANT.

[Arugula Latte]

26. The TVs-playing-sports-in-every bar thing pisses me off.

Sports bars -- okay, fine, obviously you're going to have lots of screens with lots of men playing with their balls. But even fine restaurants have TVs in their bar areas now.

I've gotta say, though, I'm diggin' the supermarket music these days, daddy-o. Mine plays stuff like the Violent Femmes -- makes me smile every time.

[japple]

31. And the fux nooze playing in the lobby of every hospital, doctors' office,

etc. just makes me scream (interrnally, of course). I work in a hospital and they have fux nooz in the lobbies, cafeterias, clinics, etc. I sometimes manage to change the channel or turn the damn thing off. Whatever happened to magazines in waiting rooms?

[Arugula Latte]

32. Yes. That is maddening.

[Orrex]

6. Gratifying, but the article would have been more impressive before the fact

These kinds of lists are nearly ubiquitious, along the lines of "14 signs of fascism" that are invariably applied post hoc to the target group du jour, with more or less shoehorning as required.

Published today, it simply reads like a laundry list of things that the author doesn't like about modern society. A satisfying read, but I don't know that it's particularly helpful or insightful.

[randome]

8. Yeah, and they always miss the largest component involved: us.

If modern society is a cage, clearly we prefer to live there. There is always a need for change but Utopia is still a fantasy.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Treat your body like a machine. Your mind like a castle.[/center][/font][hr]

[truedelphi]

24. The links I offer up in reply 23

Right below yours, are really inspiring. A real way to get at the root of how to go about successfully, inside the world of local politics and to make a difference.

[truedelphi]

23. The links below are not simply "feel good" links, but a new way for us activists

To successfully challenge the Bigger Forces that are stripping us commoners from our means to a happy fulfilling life:

This is the first video I would recommend, with an interview by Paul Cienfuegos. I love the quote from the woman writer he cites to the effect that environmental regulatory agencies exist to regulate environmentalists!

Paul Cienfuegos is now one of my heroes.

#####
Here is a second video explaining what can occur, from activists who have been successfully helped by Cienfuegos and who have undertaken serious actions in Mora County New Mexico:

[malthaussen]

7. How about this one:

Remove love and intimacy from sexual relations and make them, as far as possible, only recreational or even paid encounters between strangers.

-- Mal

[mountain grammy]

12. K & R and bookmarked.

[HomerRamone]

13. really good article with more good points than an excerpt can do justice to nt

[gtar100]

14. We make a mistake by thinking someone by design is making all that happen.

To my mind it's as natural as evolution but not towards a good, sustainable outcome. We, as collective human beings, have made choices that have led to this paradigm and it is fueled by those who prosper in it even as their numbers become smaller and smaller. But they didn't *make* this system and are as much a product of the system as anyone.

I agree with the Op, just wanted to make that point.

[KurtNYC]

17. Yes, the aggregate of many actions, trends and choices

My first reaction to reading the list was "Free your mind and you ass will follow." There is some personal choice in accepting or rejecting many of the things in that list.

I'm also a big believer that: a clear statement of the problem(s) is the beginning of the solution.

[truedelphi]

25. I love your whole OP.

Thank you for posting it. To some it might all seem obvious, but I like how it encapsulates so many of the modern day frustrations into one article.

[tavalon]

15. Spot on says the woman at the computer

The nurse at the computer. I wish I could give the world the realization that they can take care of themselves in all but the most dire of situations. We need to move "medicine" back to people's homes. This paradigm doesn't work.

[geardaddy]

16. That is an awesome take on our situation.

Thank you for posting.

[fleabiscuit]

19. - Mix religion with politics. n/t

[KurtNYC]

20. Or: -Confine spirituality to heirarchical churches. Put a fence around "God" and charge admission.

[truedelphi]

21. And if there is a branch of political activity devoid of "religion" then make sure that

that branch also worships only Money. The result will be window dressing slogans, like minimum wage. (Great in theory, but when there are not many jobs, so what!)

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

22. The society based on production is only productive, not creative. Albert Camus

[truedelphi]

27. And we have gone beyond a production based society.

What propelled the biggest money forces forward, circa 2000 to 2008, was how the Biggest Players - the banks, financial firms, mortgage firms, hedge fund managers - were simply gambling on the fact that everything would implode.

Sure things were being "produced," in that many middle class members were busy flipping houses, and hiring others to help them to do it.

But it was simply a game of musical chairs, and some of those "modern and beautiful upscale homes" ended up being bull dozed!

And then due to the criminality of our "elected leaders" the Biggest Players were Bailed out!

[Donald Ian Rankin]

28. The idiot who praises, in enthusiastic tone, all centuries but this and every country but his own.

Quality of life in the first world today is better at every centile than in any other society at any point in the past.

And praising "folk medicine" in contrast to real medicine, in particular, is horrifically irresponsible.

[KurtNYC]

34. "real medicine" that spends avg $70,000 on the last three days of terminal patients?

"real medicine" that doses terminally ill cancer patients with chemo and radiation ?

"Real medicine" that a majority of doctors surveyed said they would decline in favor of hospice in similar situations. THAT is what you champion? But accupuncture and Chinese herbs, with 6,000 years of practice, is "horrifically irresponsible" ?

Also, quality of life (real wages, access to services, life expectancy at birth, etc.) peaked in 1974 -- that is 40 years ago, eg, "a point in the past":

http://www.theguardian.com/comment/story/0,3604,866785,00.html

[Octafish]

33. Don't tell them they're in one.

Detroit, where I live, is like a prison without walls.

Unless one gets a break, as in someone finding a job or a getting a college scholarship, life is stuck south of 8 Mile and east of Telegraph.

[Bonx]

35. Convince them on a message board that there is no hope for whatever they seek...

with a C&P blog post.

[Orrex]

36. .