The youngest in our family has stated a rather curious remark a few days ago, innocent and pure - meaning there was no sign of social hang-ups, indoctrination or the taking-for-granted of things most of Western civilization seem to live by without question.
She is 4 right now and in the perfect age for reintroducing to the "grown-ups"notions about our society and the human society we are living in, precisely because she has not yet been hit by the full force of the indoctrination- and conditioning apparatus comprised of schools, media and government-sanctioned narratives although she can already use language with wit to point out things she is observing in her surroundings.
So what did she say?
Well, her glance turned to the clock on the wall, seemingly random as her mind loves to wander and she simply acknowledges things as they arise in her awareness and in her surroundings.
As the family was present and she looked at the clock, she remarked out of the blue with a loveable chuckle: "This clock! Why is everyone so in love with this clock? It just goes around in circles! It's soooo funny."
What a revelation!
Sure, anyone above the age of 8 could tell you why we definitely need clocks, why there is "very good reason" that it goes around in circles and why there is nothing wrong with that at all.
But if we ponder her remarks for a second and think of all the people who structure their entire lives and their very existence around this - ultimately - fictional model of the progression of time and the separation of the stream of experience into arbitrary chunks of duration we will have to admit: She does have a point.
The clock is a perfect symbol for the confusion of our age, the restlessness of our minds and our societal mixup of a model with actuality.
As the clock goes around in mindless circles, disregarding with the utmost stubbornness any- and everything unique that is coming up in our lives and our human experience regardless of how important it is and how deserving it would be of some sort of special consideration or the making room and time for respective non-linear lapses and breaks... we are reminded by those who have not yet started treating the clock as a law of nature that we might have it all wrong and that our obsession with living by such a device is at least something to be chuckled at. Probably more.
I sometimes think the youngest (maybe in addition to the conscious use of psychedelics) are humanity's only failsafe against being fully conquered by concepts, mind-control devices and narratives that keep us captive against our own interests.
What do you think?
