I always found the creativity and ingenuity of those who were incarcerated fascinating. In the county jail, individuals would take the top of a styrofoam food container, the waist band from a pair of underwear, a Doritos bag, and the chipboard back of a legal pad and attach it to the light to create a food warmer. Solitary confinement did not hinder the mind from thinking of ways to survive or occupy its time. Individuals would tie strings together until they were an satisfied length; and then, use them as a line to pass messages or whatever would fit under the door. In prison, we called this process fishing. These survival skills never surprised me because as a youth, a drug addict once told me self-preservation is the first law of nature, but what was mind boggling is most of these brothas could not use these same qualities in the free world. I now realize that it was the relativity of captivity versus the abstract or semi-freedom of society. In captivity, the mind is provoked to create an item out of need; in contrast to society, where the pervasive idea is we are free, and all is great. The propaganda of the media and the culture of consumerism bombards the mind with this fallacy, over stimulates it, and eventually renders it ineffective or complacent. After criminalizing black life, from 1865 to the present, most spending their time thinking of ways to get out, get in, or get over.- Anton D. House, The Philosophies and Opinions.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 16:50:19 +0000
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