Grade 12

St. Augustine's School of Iba

Dogs easily follow people who are foreign to them once they are presented with a meat-fragrant bone, and a man easily follows false and cover-up ideologies once presented with the right brainwashing propaganda. What difference is left between a dog who wanders the streets, lost, and a man who wanders society, lost, when both are easily fooled by something so mesmerizing that they forget to stop and think about where the road is headed?

In a world where everything—the media, books, narratives, data, conversations, etc.—is being manipulated, mankind, too, is under such an umbrella.

For decades, we have been blinded, controlled, by these big bosses, a.k.a. the government, into becoming silent about our own thoughts while they have slowly trained our minds to believe that whatever the algorithm (which is also manipulated by them) tells us is the truth. We have been tied to a leash held by them to control us.

Technologies that are beyond human cognitive function and control are continuously being launched, fooling the youth with the idea of “convenience.” Is convenience really so much better than the resilience of human capability?

Perhaps the leash we are tied to isn’t made of the strongest material but of our greatest weakness: comfort. They have carefully studied each comfort zone of ours and have woven the perfect leash and collar for us to wear, trapping us into submission despite our being unaware.

Convenience has been so comfortable that we have allowed a screen to do everything for us, from finishing homework to organizing our day or even just reminding us to shower. Are we really letting the big bosses control us, our actions, and our thoughts in the name of convenience?

Problem after problem after problem, we are presented with issues and told that these are all “contemporary issues,” but exploring outside the cage, they look more chronic rather than contemporary to me.

We howl for solutions to the previous problems, but we are presented with that meat-fragrant bone as soon as we “bark” up against the upper hand, all so we could forget that it ever existed.

We’re stuck in this loop in which our problems are growing even bigger with each round, and another round will definitely be the crisis that makes us collapse.

How can we escape this loop?

I’ll tell you how. Rip the leash.

Whether it requires your teeth or a tug with full force, rip the leash.

Other dogs will think you have lost your mind, but remember, pleasing them isn’t on your list of priorities. Ripping the leash doesn’t mean causing chaos or unnecessary disruption, but rather reclaiming your mind and your own conscience.

Ripping the leash means feeding yourself with knowledge from unsanitized references that lie outside the manipulated algorithm and analyzing everything with your own thoughts without being heavily influenced by propaganda.

Be free of the tiny radius that you have been forced into and accept that you have been fooled. Break free from the propaganda and tied-up lies and see what they have kept you from seeing. Roam freely once you do so and howl the truth out to the pack because the only solution now is to rip the leash.