Captivity

I think I am going to backward that my post will be from the first chapter. I have planned to put it together for few days, but I just delay posting...

I got one of these quotations as the first chapter class active, and at that time, I was not really thinking about it and just passed it; but later, I read it and its page again. I think these quotations made me to review myself and would be worthy to post on the blogJ

All of these quotations are from page 25.

“‘You’re captives of a civilizational system that more or less compels you to go on destroying the world in order to live.’”

“‘So. You are captives--and you have made a captive of the world itself. That’s what’s at stake, isn’t it? – your captivity and the captivity of the world.’”

“‘And you yourself are a captive in a personal way, are you not?’”

“‘… They [young people of this country] made an ingenuous and disorganize effort to escape from captivity but ultimately failed, because they were unable to find the bars of the cage. If you can’t discover what’s keeping you in, the will to get out soon becomes confused and ineffectual.’”

I found the definition of captivity from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captivity).
Captivity: Imprisonment or hostage, the state of being confined to a space from which it is difficult or impossible to escape

When I first read the page, I agreed with the student that how many people would think they are the “captive” of the world’s civilizational system or in their personal way. However, if I think deeper about myself and my life, I might be a captive in various ways. Even though there are no “bars of the cage,” I am in some cages or frames that I could not escape easily.

First one is captivity of educational system. Education is necessary for all people that most countries in the world provide free public education to kids till middle or high school years.  However, I think education sometimes make kids to be unified and force to learn them things without interest or desire. Education becomes very important because people want to get better, high paying jobs, not because they want to learn and expand their studies. This could relate to the video we watch in the class in this week that as students get higher education, they lose their divergent thinking processes and their creativities.

Second one would be captivity of what other people thinking. Everyone wants to be unique and individualized, but at the same time she or he cares how other view and think about himself or herself. Sometimes one person chooses a right thing, but because the majority of a group chooses wrong things, he or she follows them with peer pressure.

Last one is captivity of money. Today, many people would say that I will do anything to earn a lot of money. It is true that people need money to pay things like food, cloth, and education. However, people want money more than they actually need.  People work and work without enjoying their life or do things they should not do to make money.  Money becomes one of the crucial factors that make people happy; if you have money, you can do anything you want.  I like what Benjamin Franklin said about money: “Money has never made man happy, nor will it, there is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more of it one has the more one wants” (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/money.html#ixzz1m1ZrwZBV).

Think hard about in what other ways people are captives... and who or what are the captors...

This cute picture is by Andy Kennedy from http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/gallery/2011/sep/30/weekend-readers-pictures-captive#/?picture=379642664&index=0.  

Silent or peaceful captivity?