Reflections on the Rat Race (9/13)

Not all rats are meant to be free. Some need to be guided, even framed. Paradoxically, it even seems that the freer (or more abandoned) they were in their youth, the more they need strong reference points later on, even if they are completely absurd. Barriers and ruts can sometimes bring the appearance of a certain security, even if they lead us to an inglorious outcome. In any case, they prevent us from having to ask ourselves too many questions, which can be reassuring, at least in the short term. The problem is, at some point you have to face reality and your own demons. And the later, the worse.

Other rats need to lead. On the surface, they are freer than those they govern. Only in appearance, because they are dependent on extrinsic factors such as money, fame, prestige and power. They can only temporarily find peace at the cost of drawing ever more energy from outside, to the detriment of the rest of the universe. They are enslaved, and they in turn enslave to escape, temporarily at least, their rat condition. For them too, if they don't question themselves, the fall will be painful. In the end, they're not so different from those depicted above, i.e. those they subjugate. Both are running away from reality.

Fortunately, there's one last category of rat. But they are few and far between. This is due to the power of the "work-consume" paradigm, the materialistic values of our Western societies and the extreme interconnectedness offered by information and communication technologies. These rats are like freedmen, unreceptive to the sirens of work, fashion, external signs of wealth, prestige and power. They don't seek fulfillment from a material point of view, but rather from a psychological, emotional, relational and spiritual one. Even if they are linked to others, their development and well-being depend less on the outside, than on their inner resources. They are independent. Society may want to cage them, and may even succeed in doing so at some point, formally. But inside they remain free.