I often find myself thinking that life is both more simple and more complicated than we make it.
I first started thinking about this when I failed to complete my PhD. When I reached a point where I couldn’t go any further, I made the decision to drop out. And having made the decision, I felt a bit low, but then I realised that we’re all monkeys. A PhD doesn’t actually mean anything, it’s a piece of paper that other monkeys might give you. The actual PhD doesn’t exist outside the heads of the monkeys.
So on days when I’m struggling with life, with society, structures, concepts, inventions, this comes back to me.
Look beyond the lines. Everything you think you know was taught or learned, and may not be fundamentally true.
Like the character Echo in Dollhouse, we have been imprinted, albeit more slowly. But we may be able to reprogram ourselves, take out the parts that don’t fit, or at least recognise them for what they are and ignore them. Therein lies hope.
