Invisible Fences
Not just for dogs anymore
Invisible Fences
I sometimes ask, whose pet are you? People respond that they are nobody’s pet. I’m not so sure.
One of the ironies of life is pets. Do we own them, or do they own us? They have no responsibility to us; we are responsible for them. We see to their housing, their nutrition, and their healthcare. In return, we get their undying devotion. (From dogs anyway. Cats are a whole other thing.) Yes, pets have it made, except that their food, shelter and healthcare are whatever we decide they’re going to be. They get no input in their own lives.
Well, that sucks, doesn’t it? Would you want someone else to decide where and how you can live, what you can eat and what healthcare you get? Just asking. It’s not as if it’s at all like that in real life. Right?
Toby. That’s our dog. He loves us, and why wouldn’t he. He’s got it made. Besides his regular meals, he sits at the table and begs when we have our meals. We don’t feed him directly at the table. When we’re finished, we’ll put scraps on a plate and put the plate on his mat, his ‘place’. Toby knows all this, and when we are ready to give him the leftovers, I say “Place” and “Sit”, and he goes to his place and sits. But until that time, he stands by my side while I sit at the table, begging. And that guy can BEG.
My point is, Toby takes commands, especially when there’s food involved. Sometimes, as he sits there begging, showing no self-respect, I say, “If you’re so hungry, go catch a rabbit.” He never does. He can’t. We have an invisible fence, so he can’t leave the yard. I say, “Can’t”, but really he can. The system consists of a wire running around the yard, underground, that transmits a signal. If he gets too close, a receiver on his collar buzzes for two seconds, and then he gets a shock. Toby knows exactly where he can go in the yard. I mean, to the inch.
But he has two whole seconds before he gets shocked. That’s enough time to run past that underground wire and keep going, beyond its range, with no shock. Some dogs figure that out, and do that. Toby doesn’t. He never questions. He accepts. He is somebody’s pet.
What about us free people? What are our invisible fences? Are you aware of yours? Did you know that you can run right through it and keep going, and it will never affect you? You don’t have to accept the limits of what your handlers put before you. You can achieve your own education without following any program. You can create your own job, and never be fired or laid off. All you have to do is develop marketable skills and see to your own healthcare and retirement plan. No, not as easy as just having a job, but there is a much greater sense of freedom. You learn that you can run right thru that fence, and keep on going. How far you get is up to your own stamina and initiative. What direction to go? You decide.
Or you can stay in the yard. When that buzzer sounds, you know to pull back into the safe zone. The zone where you will be fed, housed and cared for by whoever it is that decides such things for you. If your school says study this, study it. If your schools say here’s what’s right and here’s what’s wrong, accept it. If your school says that you are the victim, or that you are privileged, do not question. You wouldn’t want that buzzer to go off, followed by a shock.
Stay within the confines of whichever political party controls you. Be for what they tell you to be for, and against what they tell you to be against. Accept it all, and pretend it was your own idea. Feel the comfort of being surrounded by people who are just like you, and you are just like them. Do not run thru the fence and see a new world on your own terms. That would be downright scary!
I ran thru that fence when I was twenty seven. I gave up an established future, well defined. It was a nice big yard, with plenty of amusements, and I was well cared for. But I was somebody’s pet. I couldn’t say who, but I was. My life was defined by others. I experienced nothing new. I wasn’t impulsive, but after some consideration I decided, I’m going for it. I ran thru the fence, and I’ve never looked back.
Can relate. Ran through one of those fences myself once. The hardest part was preparing for the jolt-- and it was substantial but it made all the difference in my life.