What’s the worst part about prison?
One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich is all you need to know about Ivan Denisovich, because the idea that anyone could live for a minute in such circumstances seems impossible; one day in the life of an American prison means much less, because the force of it is that one day typically stretches out for decades. It isn’t the horror of the time at hand but the unimaginable sameness of the time ahead that makes prisons unendurable for their inmates.
Having never been in prison, I can’t speak to this, but it seems plausible that the “unimaginable sameness” of the time left to serve would be among the worst aspects of incarceration. Sameness is a punishment in its own right. Not just in the repetitious Chinese Water Torture sort of way, but in the “prevent you from experiencing the variety of life” sort of way. In that regard, it may be the ultimate punishment.
“Sometimes I think this whole world is one big prison yard, / Some of us are prisoners, some of us are guards” – Bob Dylan
If that’s true, why do so many of us yearn for ubiquitous sameness? The American Dream was sold to the world as a 1500 square foot box in the suburbs with a patch of grass out front, one car, a gold watch after you grind out 40 years at the same company, and the hope that your kids could have the same opportunity. For much of the world, this stability may be something to aspire to, but in a nation of such plenty, why do so many wish this upon so many?
I think the answer is convenience. It’s emotionally convenient to overlook emotional incarceration when you provide people with stability. It’s financially convenient for people to give up their own dreams in exchange for that stability. It’s politically convenient to be able to point to a city full of jobs that require a skill anyone can be trained in. Nearly anyone can serve time, but that doesn’t make it something to aspire to.
But, that’s what people want: to trade even minimal risk for security. To give up control of their lives in exchange for the illusion of stability. The irony is that when you make that pact, you have neither control nor stability. You will always be at the mercy of someone else, often just a single someone else. As many people have found out in the last 4 years, if your boss doesn’t like you, or your company’s products aren’t selling, or your CFO was embezzling, or any one of a hundred things that are completely beyond your control, you’re job can be taken away from you.
The smarter way is take your fate into your own hands. Develop a skill set that is highly valuable, and you will never need to answer to just a single person. Clients or projects might be taken away, but your skills can’t. Do this, and you can craft a career and a life where you get to do something different each day. Where unimaginable sameness is something you can’t even imagine.
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