Life As A Rat Race
Contemplating life and refocusing my writing efforts.
I sat down to meditate the other day and, for some reason, couldn’t settle my mind. I ended up stuck on the idea of the rat race. This phrase is used to describe life, particularly when life becomes exhausting and repetitive.
I was so caught up with these thoughts that I decided to record a stream of consciousness. I wanted to get the thoughts out and then revisit them. And so, here we are. This post will be revisiting some of the thoughts I recorded and putting them down in ink. Well… Internet-ink, at least.
Life As A Rat Race
99.5% of the rats in this race are stuck in the maze looking for cheese. And a majority of those don’t realize that the race is actually a maze. We operate as if there is an end. But really, it is just one big neverending search for cheese. The biggest difference between the rats is the level of control each one has over the cheese.
The very bottom level rats are fighting the hardest. They face a scarcity of cheese. They need to consume their cheese immediately, making any attempt at storing cheese for the future extremely difficult. They are likely to set up camp in a dangerous and resource-starved section of the maze. Their opportunities for cheese are few and far between. This makes the chance of violence being a part of their search very likely.
Claude Brown once said, “The most dangerous thing you can do is steal from poor people.” In this maze, the most dangerous thing you can do is try to grab a piece of some other rats cheese.
The middle-level rats are doing better, but they’re still fighting for more cheese. They’ve got enough to find a reasonably comfortable corner of the maze to setup their cheese-searching operation. Scarcity is still a factor, but there is enough abundance to settle the rats, making the chance of violence less likely. However, most of these rats are still chasing without much thought to the maze itself.
David Foster Wallace’s parable of the fish comes to mind.
There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, “What the hell is water?”
The next level of rat is doing quite well. Similar to the mid-level, however, most of these rats aren’t taking the time to look at the maze. This level resides in the most comfortable portions of the maze. The scarcity they face is mainly superficial, and the chance that violence is part of their search is minimal. These rats may be zipping around the maze in Audis and Teslas, but they’re still in the maze.
At this point, we’ve reached the 1%. To be clear, the 1% rhetoric is a bit false. The top 1% still includes professions such as Doctors and Lawyers. White-collar professionals who still sell their time for money.
The next level is the .5% rats. These are rats with a mountain of cheese stored up. To break the analogy a bit, we’re talking about a net worth of more than $15 Million. These rats have done very well for themselves, so surely they take time to stop and enjoy their time in the maze?
To some extent, yes, but getting to this level is rarely satisfying for the average ambitious rat. There are more levels in this maze and an ever-growing variety of cheeses to collect. At this level, the rats actually stand on top of the maze, watching the rest of us run around. They’ve reached a significant level of power.
These rats have so much cheese, they get to choose where to place cheese within the maze. So where do they place this cheese? In the spots they think will bring the greatest return on investment. “If I place 20 cheese over here, can I get 30 cheese back?” That is the type of calculation going on at this level.
Keep in mind though, these rats are still facing some scarcity. Despite being removed from the first maze, they still find themselves connected to the maze. They compete with other rats who’ve made it to the same position. They still compete over the best locations and the best opportunities to acquire and place their cheese.
The final level (perhaps I’m too naive to see additional levels) is the .1% level. To break the analogy once more, these are the rats with more than $40 Million net worth. What does being a rat at this level get you access to? Not only do you get to decide where to place the cheese, you get to select what type of cheese is in the maze.
These rats are the most powerful rats in the maze. Not only do they sit on top of the first level, but they have the greatest control over the flow of cheese within the maze. Despite being in this position, they still haven’t escaped the maze. Their power and prestige are still tied to the maze and the collective behavior of the other rats.
So… If we’re all just rats chasing after cheese… What is the cheese? Cheese is wealth. Cheese is the stuff the rats want. Some of that may be literal cheese. Most of what we rats search for is money. Because money will get the other things we want. The physical things, at least.
We’re also chasing importance, prestige, power, acceptance, love, etc. The wants never cease. Rats rarely stop searching for more.
Wrapping up this analogy, it is clear that life isn’t quite this simple. The beauty of simple analogies like the rat race is that we can speak in generalities, which helps express how life feels. However, doing this misses all the minutiae and color of life.
Following this thread helped me see how far from my original mission I’ve come. Attack on Jack was meant to do exactly what it says — attack my personal beliefs while also deconstructing the concept of power.
I’ve been learning a lot with this project. But I have been going through the motions the last couple of months. I’m not really pushing myself. I spent 2019 reading a ton of books. 36 books, to be exact. This year has been a much better mix of reading AND writing. I went from mere consumption to consumption and production. I want 2021 to be another leap forward in production.
Over the next couple weeks, I’m going to develop a new curriculum for myself. One that directly takes on the concept of power and forces me to take a stand on reality as I see it. I’ll start this once I’ve finished with my current book, Becoming Brilliant. The curriculum will be set sometime before then, so I’ll post that at some point in the coming weeks.