Panopticon

Three fourteen-inch thick concrete block walls surround me. They feel cold to touch, with the matching floors, hard and foreign. The interlocking bars are almost surreal, but once I feel them in my grasp, I realize that no thing, and no man can break this. Ultimately, it is not the metal and concrete stronghold are not what keeps me captive. I see the tall, brooding tower in the center, right in front of my barred door and feel the eyes surround me on all sides. Suddenly, this transforms into reality.

One of the most intriguing social theorists and philosophers, Jeremy Bentham, had a theory. He created a complex building design for prison systems that was Big Brother far ahead of its time. Essentially, it made prisoners feel as though they were being watched at all times, though the reality was that the design was an elaborate scarecrow.

Eventually, it becomes normal. The scarecrow remains scary, but it becomes a backdrop of the routine life for which one has been dealt. 

Although not many people escape the panopticon, many can outsmart its cheap design. After all, the way of the world is built on this destiny. To overcome the cage, the prison, the valleys, we realize that the prison guard was really just a scarecrow after all. And we valiantly march forward to destiny, hope, and the reality that we make for ourselves, no holds, and certainly, no bars.