The Mechanical Man

Everything we learn we are taught. Nothing known to us isn't taught. One could say that we are machines that are programmed to do. Especially if we are taught to just do and not think. 


In the book The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison he writes about a young black man who goes through various events in his life where people are trying to make him a "mechanical" man. Throughout the whole novel he believes that he is doing things that will progress him further in his life but in reality he is being subjected to everyone else's views. He is being forced to live a certain way. (I should also say that this book was written in the 50's to put it into context.) 


While in the south he attends a black college. While there the things he learns is that he is to please the white man. He isn't to do what they ask but to do what they want. He is to know what the white man wants and to appease there every need. While he thought that he has learned this he fails to do so and is expelled from the school and sent to Harlem in NYC. 


While in NYC he ends up in a hospital after being in an explosion. He ends up in this metal box with a glass cover. The doctors are attempting to get rid of all his memories and make him into someone that they can use that doesn't think. They are trying to make him the mechanical man. However, the opposite seems to happen and he thinks that he is free of the world. He takes this job where he thinks that he will become his own man and be able to speak to Harlem and change the world. The opposite happens though. He is indoctrinated by the Brotherhood, who he is working for, and becomes their puppet. He is used by them to their every need. He still hasn't escaped the world of the mechanical man. 


Even in the end of the book he is trying to figure out what has happened to him and what he is supposed to think of it all. 


The same can be said of us. If we look at our lives how are you living it? Are you a mechanical person who has been taught things and doesn't take the time to think about what you have been taught? 


Without thinking about what we have been taught we become mechanical and then possibly we haven't learned a thing.


P.S. I left a TON of the book out and you should check it out because there is a lot of good stuff in the book. If you are offended by objectionable material though I give you fair warning there is some in the book.

Beautiful Bliss

Drowning in this beautiful bliss of lies I sat and wondered if it were true. 


Could I trust the person sitting next to me who seemed to tell such a beautiful tale? The words were poetic and captivating. Seeming to reveal the deepest part of my soul in a way known all to well. 


The familiarity seemed warm and comforting at first but slowly turned cold. Nothing but a beautiful void stood before me. Trusting its every word till I would die. 


Wanting nothing more then to complete the very thing before me.  This beautiful void that I knew nothing of. Captivating me till I would die.


It held something I wanted. The truth deep within itself. Drowning from the lies that created the beauty. 


I realized it was me. I wanted myself and not the lies that I had made. No more drowning. It may not be beautiful but its me. 


Yes it was true but there's more to life than drowning in a beautiful bliss of lies.