Orfeus og Eutydike ~ Palle Nielson
It’s all window-dressing; it’s how we adapt our surroundings to best shield ourselves from our fears.
Some cells are padded and some are bamboo lined and there are those who say you can tell a man by the state of his cell.
We are all here on a voluntary basis, so try not to think of this prison as having bars on the windows – volunteers... or so we’d like to think.
The security staff that we employ to protect us from the outside world are pretty unsavoury types who have no qualms about biting the hand that feeds them.
So, yes, in answer to your next question, the armour is necessary; by the nature of this prison it would be unwise to believe that everything is totally under control.
The trick seems to be to be sure that your armour allows you to see outward as well as inward.
Out in the exercise yard we circle daily; the distant tree-line paints vertical stripes on our uniforms while the guards hover like carrion birds to pick off those who fall behind. We are not men, we are not sheep; we are but commodities to be bought and sold on the deregulated market run by those who worship at the altar of power.
These walls: at first glance you would be forgiven for the impression that they are designed to keep us in; in truth, like a lobster entering the pot, any would-be escapee may find easy access to the meat set as bait but upon coming to his senses he will find that escape is prohibited by barbed hooks deeply embedded in his psyche. These walls, while imposing in their physical sense, when subjected to scrutiny, disappear like anxious ghost-parents that hover in the peripheral vision of a sleepwalking child.
Some cells are padded and some are bamboo lined and there are those who say you can tell a man by the state of his cell.
We are all here on a voluntary basis, so try not to think of this prison as having bars on the windows – volunteers... or so we’d like to think.
The security staff that we employ to protect us from the outside world are pretty unsavoury types who have no qualms about biting the hand that feeds them.
So, yes, in answer to your next question, the armour is necessary; by the nature of this prison it would be unwise to believe that everything is totally under control.
The trick seems to be to be sure that your armour allows you to see outward as well as inward.
Out in the exercise yard we circle daily; the distant tree-line paints vertical stripes on our uniforms while the guards hover like carrion birds to pick off those who fall behind. We are not men, we are not sheep; we are but commodities to be bought and sold on the deregulated market run by those who worship at the altar of power.
These walls: at first glance you would be forgiven for the impression that they are designed to keep us in; in truth, like a lobster entering the pot, any would-be escapee may find easy access to the meat set as bait but upon coming to his senses he will find that escape is prohibited by barbed hooks deeply embedded in his psyche. These walls, while imposing in their physical sense, when subjected to scrutiny, disappear like anxious ghost-parents that hover in the peripheral vision of a sleepwalking child.
Tales for the attention-span deficit reader
5 comments:
"The trick seems to be to be sure that your armour allows you to see outward as well as inward".
Damn. You're cracking the hell out of that word whip o yorn.
And that closing sentence is bloody brilliant.
yes, indeed, you can tell a lot about a person by the state of her cell....
... and i wonder, as i read this piece, about the cells of one's own making, the way the oppressor can live in one's head until it feels... natural.
i like what your writing does to my mind...
Lobe: that's no whip, it's a crowbar
Harlequin: "the way the oppressor can live in one's head until it feels... natural"
that's just the way he likes it to feel.
The Parent/Teachers Association is dedicated to creating this invisible prison with dire threats lurking outside. The escape key is called "everything you know is wrong", the escape path is comparing ones experience against what one is told.
Yodood: The escape key is called "everything you know is wrong" and realising that there is a key is the key :)
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