We are all too aware of what happens to animals in captivity, and there has been a debate my whole life about whether it should be allowed. To contain thousands of animals and place them in specially designed and created areas, mostly suited to their basic needs for existence and purpose of being showpieces. Not for survival, or real living, just existing. Although, there are conservation areas and game reserves where they allow a certain amount of extra freedom, but still contained and controlled.

Now apply that to us. I have previously compared us to being treated like animals and the parallels I see in my articles Farming, but not as you might think, and In a Maze. But as the talk of 15-minute towns and cities continues, I start to see it as a zoo set up rather than a simple prison as some are calling it, although seems a bizarre blend of the two. And not the first time really I guess, as we have had walled and gated towns and cities before in this country, where you are owned and controlled. My piece A Working Strategy highlights how after the plague, rules and laws were put in place to stop skilled labourers from working where they wanted and a cap on wages and movement was introduced. Forcing the economic structure and limiting people’s ability to make their own choices, a good living and dictate their own future. As I have said before, we haven’t been ‘free’ for quite some time.

And in full captivity, they can’t survive once the walls are up and the gates are locked. Seems rather like what the future sounds like really with talk of restrictions, limitations on everything and rationing your life back to you. One social credit score at a time, where you no longer work for just money to then exchange for ‘freedom’. Instead, you earn points, and trade those for luxuries, niceties and that social standing and acceptance people have been bred to covet. This is an upgrade of what we already have, not just a replacement or simple change as people think.

We’re being moved from the conservation area into the open zoo, followed by closed zoo it would seem. The countryside is owned, people pushed to towns and then cities. And it’s those open zoos that are trying to close their gates essentially. Or at least charge you if you want any access rights or freedom of movement as we have previously known.

They want children to scan into school, people to scan into shops and wherever they go. Just like clocking in and out, imagine taking a little card with you everywhere you went. And every establishment you went in you had to punch your card, and out again. Everything you bought, card punch. Everyone you spoke to, card punch. And when you get home, your card is already tallied up because it’s connected to a central computer. You overspent your credits, visited too many shops, weren’t allowed the sugary snack you bought, and said the wrong thing to the person you spoke to. All access rights denied for one week, 50 credits deducted and strict diet now imposed on card holder. Or something like that. Seems obsessive and stalky to me, but some average people seem to think it’s a good thing, I’m not sure who they are, but apparently, they are out there.

We all know however, the ones who are pushing for it, and that they mainly stand to profit heavily from said systems and procedures attached to the implementation of various things. And for the people who will be at the whim of these systems? It will be a restricted, controlled and profitable utopia for them, and a buckled, depressing dystopia for us. But no fear, they’ll have medication all lined up to ‘cure’ you of being a fully functioning, healthy human. No place for those in their zootopia…

(c) K Wicks