On Debt and Dependence

As animals we move through three periods during the course of our lives. We begin as dependent beings and we slowly grow into independence and then flower and become interdependent beings.

Unless you are a domesticated being. Domesticated beings- such as most dogs, most house cats, most humans and most farm animals to a greater or lesser extent- never leave the dependent stage. This outcome is not the result of any accident.

Those people who domesticated these beings, dog, cat, cow, or human; did so with the intent of making them dependent. Dependence is part of the definition of domestication, a being that does not not depend upon the good nature of another to survive is not domesticated. Such beings may remain potentially capable of throwing off their domestication and becoming wild again, and becoming free again, but they are dependent as long as they do not break this chain.

There are many forms of dependence that a would be master may attempt to force upon their intended livestock.

The means of violence is denied. Cats are de-clawed, dogs are muzzled, bulls de-horned, chickens are de-beaked, peasants are forbidden to use swords and so on. The first method of enforcing dependence is to remove the means to assert oneself through violence or the threat of violence.

The means of education is denied. Horses are fitted with blinders, dogs are not allowed to hunt, mothers are separated from their babies moments after birth. Books are burned, scholars are executed, literacy is curtailed, topics are rendered taboo. Without the ability to learn and, as importantly, the ability to choose what we will learn- the domesticated being will not be able to see their captivity.

Docility is bred for and trained into the animals. Obedient animals are rewarded with food, or attention, oat bags and gold stars, a scratch behind the ears and a place on the Dean's list. Disobedient animals are used as object lessons, shock collars and canings, public humiliations and forcible confinement in a kennel. Such tactics make it rational for any single animal to stay obedient.

Obligations are created. Student loans, mortgages on houses and cars, credit card debt and on and on. Now the domesticated being is trapped within the system, until it untangles or ignores these obligations.