Modern Life: Sealed Up, Walled In, Locked Out

My mouthwash is sealed at the top with tight plastic shrink-wrap. When I try to peel it off, I cut my fingers. Still, I must have it so that a psychopath does not put rat poison into my mouthwash and kill me when I wake up and gargle.

My car is sealed with a powerful alarm. It shrieks and turns the lights on and off when anyone even touches my car. It goes off even when dogs bark near it. All through the day and night I have to rush outside and turn it off. Still, I have to have it because a thief might smash its window and steal my CD player and cost me a week’s pay.

My house is sealed with a complete burglar alarm system. It lets out a loud claxon, then calls the local police, if anyone passes the perimeter of the house. I set it off by mistake all of the time, and have to quickly call in its “abort code” so that the police do not come here and shoot me by mistake. Still, I have to have it because in my neighborhood, family homes are piggy banks for drug addicts, day or night.

Inside my house, I have to keep all the doors and windows closed, all through the day. The air conditioning runs with a quiet hum, blocking out the noise of singing birds and the occasional breeze through the palms. I hate to seal myself in like that, but if I don’t, the overwhelming noise of air-staple guns, cement mixers, hammers, rock music, and roach wagons selling burritos at the nearby construction sites blasts through the house, making any attempt at conversation impossible. Plus, the smog lays down a thick layer of dust even sooner if the windows are opened. To protect ourselves from noise and dirt, we keep the house sealed.

At night, when I lay my head on my pillow, my final conscious act is to put in my plastic earplugs. With them in, I cannot hear the sounds of my son laughing in his sleep down the hall or the dogs’ perfect, rhythmic snoring. But if I didn’t put them in, I would be kept awake all night by the cars that roar past our house with windows down, playing their stereos as loud as they will go, making us learn rap lyrics against our will. I have to keep my senses sealed up or else I cannot get any rest.

This is modern life: sealed up, walled in, locked up, locked out. It’s lonely and it’s sad and it didn’t used to be like this.

The people who obey the law, who don’t poison people or steal from them or break into their houses or make horrible noises all through the night--the civilized people--are prisoners of the new barbarians.

We are walled up in our houses, in our cars, in our persons, away from mobility, from good sounds, from each other. Don’t wait for the new Dark Ages any longer. They’re here.