Past to now = A gorilla going to a zoo

We talked in class about how wild gorillas have freedom and ones in zoos don't. This fact relates to the history of mankind in a interesting and confusing way: we're basically caged in various aspects like a gorillas in zoos.

First of all, we have something in our society called "morals", codes for our behaviors. They restrict us from killing, stealing, and etc. They basically tell us about what's right and what's wrong. When human beings were still primitive, they did whatever it took to survive regardless of anything. Somehow, humans developed a mentality that set the limits, and somehow we came to idea that certain conducts are "immoral". Our behaviors and mindsets are restricted by the rising bars of the cage.

Laws are rules to ensure that people who violate morals are punished. Laws add bars to our cage. Now, everyone have to follow the rules. Laws prevent us from doing what creators consider as immoral since we're afraid of consequences. During mankind's primitive period, there's no such things as laws, one would not be locked in a cell because of killing someone. Our behaviors and mindsets, once again, are even more restricted.

Knowledge adds a huge bar to our cage. The power of knowledge limits our ideas; it forces us to think practically and face reality. One came from a impoverished background wouldn't think of becoming the richest person since one sees the impossibility of that goal. Mankind uses knowledge to measure the chance of almost everything. For instance, children often think of flying to the moon or becoming super heroes, however, as we grow up and gain more knowledge, we realize that our dreams during childhood are just dreams, unrealistic ideas that will never be done.

Money is a bar also. Before we had money, one worked in order to continue one's life span, now we work for money. We always think about money when we're about to start something. The power of money controls what we do and think. One would do many things for money since one presume that money makes life better. We work for a long period in our lives, because if we don't, we don't gain enough money, and the lack of money creates problems. Money restricts our mindsets and behaviors by becoming the common goal we're fighting for.

Our lives are caged by abstract bars, unlike gorillas in the zoo, they're caged by the physically real bars. Mankind has built these bars to ensure the stability of individual lives in a society. Society itself is like a zoo keeper, it puts individuals into cages they belong in order to preserve the whole society all together. One would be considered an outcast if one is not caged. Most of the people are caged willingly because they know their lives would be stabler and their survival would be guaranteed. It's all part of the plan.