Graffiti 2009-10

ALEX REDINGER

I am sure there are many students and staff members throughout the school who have been wondering how a P.R. nightmare like the hot sauce competition could have occurred. The hot sauce competition, in brief, was on the final day of Charity Week, and consisted of eleven brave souls who consumed round after round of hot sauce-laced chips, infrequently trying to quench their pain in milk. In a manner I suppose was too Darwinian for the administration’s liking, slowly students peeled away in pain or discomfort, until, at last, there was a single winner (although, judging by his expression, I’m not sure if he considered himself one at the time). So, to those incredulous individuals, I must respond, how can something of this nature not have occurred until now?

This superficial insanity brings into the foreground a far more fundamental issue with society, which can be seen as a microcosm in the current education system. The issue is addressed by a concept which was brought forth by the renowned psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, and is called psychological repression.

We find a dancing dog, dressed in the clothes of a clown, to be an amusing example of a creature thrust into a role it is ill equipped to handle. What most people don’t understand, however, is that we, in a very real sense, are that dog. Humans have a certain state of mind while in the wild, and have been honed by millions of years to act in specific instinctual habits. The way of life best suited for our instinctive nature, however, is a hunter-gatherer society, and so we have naturally needed to compromise, as agriculture and ultimately civilization began to arise.

This compromise created Freud’s psychological repression. Society breaks and chisels us until we fit into its supposed norms, and thus we both actively and subconsciously are forced to repress our true, instinctive nature. Have you ever felt a sudden (and swift in passing) urge to hurt someone (perhaps pushing them off a subway platform), or perhaps considered, if only for a second, just throwing yourself lustily at a crush, doing away with societal conventions? These types of sudden, passing urges, according to Freud, are our repressed nature emerging.

The manner in which society holds humanity’s collective head underwater the most horrifically is those endless nests of cubicles where countless white-collar workers practice their pitiful trade. Nothing is more dehumanizing than day after day of mindless, unappreciated work, with little chance to express your humanity, let alone primal instinct. However, the modern education system is hardly better in this regard. We are forced to jump through hoops like trained horses, with minimal regard to our personal interests until the last year or two (and even then, the individualism is negligible at best). The teachings of men like Euclid, Newton, and even Freud himself are put before our personal wants (especially those instinctive ones which were supposed to be weeded out in kindergarten and early grade school), and as you might expect as you hold a man’s head underwater, there’s bound to be some kicking and flailing, as futile as it might be.

The movie Fight Club demonstrates this. Tyler Durden exclaims, “Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who’ve ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God […], an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy [stuff] we don’t need.” The men of fight club were so disconnected by repressive society that they beat each other into mashed pulps, just to feel something.

Now, those who participated and observed the hot sauce competition might see where I’m going with this and disagree, saying they had other reasons for their attendance (helping charity and morbid curiosity being the major two). I agree with them wholeheartedly. However, unless they had the fortune (and it would indeed be fortune) to be raised in a hunter-gatherer society, or at least one which doesn’t attempt to actively repress human instincts, I have absolute confidence they were there in large part just to break up the monotony of the school week. We are supposed to come in at 9, keep our nose to the grindstone until 3 (and don’t be disruptive during your hour-long lunch!), and then drag home some standardized work to do for approximately the recommended two hours. Expression of our human nature is to be done afterschool and on weekends (excluding time for homework, clubs, and jobs). Is it a wonder, then, that we eagerly anticipate the end of a school day and week (except when something we find personally interesting is happening, like a fascinating lesson, or, say, a hot sauce competition)?

The hot sauce competition was a rash and foolish way for us to try and shake off the shackles, if only for an hour. However, a man being drowned won’t flail gracefully. The very education system is geared to churning out “slaves with white collars” who can keep Canada competitive in the even more flawed international marketplace, and the price is our humanity. This is not a system I would blame on individuals within our school, or even government, but rather all of us (myself included), for allowing ourselves to be herded by society. A plague o’ all our houses.

Now, armed with the knowledge of the active repression of our nature, is it really surprising to you that something seemingly so surreal could have occurred?