Coffee Crimes & Castle Walls
| July 11th, 2008 by Robert | Word Count: 1138 | Reading Time 4:35 | 2,475 views |
I’m going to write about a product today that I ran across while surfing this morning. It doesn’t appear to be a “brand spanking new” product like the release of the 3G Apple iPhone today, but it seems to have reappeared for whatever reason. I’m even going to throw in an image, how do you like that? What is it? It’s a coffee cup with a locking plug in the side of it. The cup has been designed for the office worker who tends to have his or her coffee cup stolen/borrowed by other people. Having the “lock-cup” at work renders the cup useless for most people and thus ensures your cup will be available for use the next time you are in need of coffee, tea, or hot chocolate at the office. How awesome of an invention is that? (sarcasm)
Novelty items are all around us and some are funny and some are actually useful. While I’m sure there are office workers who are thanking their lucky stars because they now have a theft deterrent built into their coffee cup, the rest of normal society is looking at this product in wonderment. Has society regressed to the point where we need a key to “open” our coffee cup? We have locks on our houses, safes inside our houses, our computers, our gas caps, our hub caps, our cars, and now we can have locks on our coffee cup! Since when did a coffee cup become of such value, the hardened office criminals have began to devise clandestine plans to illegally appropriate someone else’s valuable mug property? I will hope for the sake of sanity this product is a novelty item only and not meant to be purchased as a means to end a “serious” office issue.
Seriously though, our lives are beginning to reach the point where we are trying to “lock up” everything we own out of fear of losing it. Over time, our society is continuing down the path of “castle mentality.” What I mean by “castle mentality” is that we are trying to build walls to keep everyone out of our lives and possession. These walls can be physical, mental, or just theoretical walls we put in place. Even electronic walls fit this mindset. Our country began as a nation of immigrants. Our nation was based upon open minds and diverse nationalities being welcomed into our melting pot. Society in the past featured communities where no door was locked and people were welcomed with open arms as if they were family. People were trusted as being honorable and trustworthy until proven different. How far has our country gone from the open mentality of those in the past generations? We are currently at the polar opposite.
Our nation is worried about closing our borders for various reasons. Our citizens are under constant pressure trying to protect the rights given to us by our Constitution and Bill of Rights. Our government continually tries to filter those rights for the so-called “greater good.” These are forms of walls. Does the definition of freedom have any reference to walls or limitations? The castle can be in various forms. Our government is a castle which those in power try their utmost to protect and grow its borders. Our house is our own personal castle which we are forced to protect. Our private lives are also our castle which we protect from those around us. Our electronic data is another castle we continually build walls to protect. Now, we even have our castle at our office. Not just the office desk, but even the coffee cup. Our nation has turned into something akin to what our forefathers sailed the seas away from.
We build our castle walls everywhere in an effort to protect our supposed freedom within. It is a constant effort to keep the walls from closing in and thus we see products such as the “lock-cup” created. Even if it is a joke, or novelty item, it is a product from the symptoms of castle mentality within our society. Now, I’m not saying there should be no locks, or there should be no government, or there should be no laws that we must abide by. I am saying rather than being forced to live in a protectionist society, we should be focusing on living in a society which was established over 230 years ago, a free one. We are the world’s beacon for a free society and we are slowly allowing our own freedom to be closed by various forms of castle building. How many walls do you have in your life protecting your freedom within? Are you continually maintaining them in an effort to keep the intruders out? Are you building new ones every day in an effort to expand your footprint of personal freedom? Who and what are you keeping out? Do you have a wall around your property? Do you have a wall around your office? Everywhere you go, there can be a wall. We choose to do this because we are afraid if we don’t build our walls, we will lose something of value.
We may lose possessions which are valuable. We may lose precious territory that “belongs” to us. We may be afraid to let people into our lives where we are in fear of being hurt or rejected. Our mentality of castle building affects everything we do. In a free society, where did this mentality creep in? It has crept into our society’s mind because over time, our freedoms have slowly been taken away from us in various ways. We have moved from a sharing society to a society of me. Our walls protect our selfish desires of what we want or feel we deserve. Rather than a community focus, we are focused on where we will be as an individual. If our country had the same mentality when our forefathers took the leap of faith proclaiming independence, I don’t believe the United States of America would exist today.
If we are going to build something, we should focus on extending the rights and freedoms of our country, not building walls to limit them. Removing the castle mentality from society cannot be done overnight or by one individual. It is something that would probably take generations to change just as it has taken generations to create. But, if we can stop the momentum and even reverse the trend, we can make an immediate impact in our current generation’s lives. Rather than building that next wall, choose to use your efforts in building something else. We have come a long way from a coffee cup lock to discussing a free society but I like thinking metaphorically. The “lock-cup” is a metaphor for someone’s castle wall and the walls of our society.
on July 12th, 2008 at 12:20 am:
I believe that a lot of the reason for building walls today, is that we live in a society where there are so many people that don’t have good morals or respect for the other persons property.
A good example of that is, people that are addicted to drugs that will beg, borrow or steal anything that they can get their hands on to sell for another fix. They are stealing copper wire, appliances, air conditioners, generators, doors or anything else that can be stripped from homes that are being built or setting empty.
I read an article recently from an electric company that stated, lots of their recent power outages were due to people stealing wire from their substations and lots of times they would find the person electrocuted trying to remove the copper. If people will go to that extent to try to steal copper, then where would they draw a line when it comes to our safety and property??
I think that the situation will only get worse. They have eliminated all discipline from our schools,and if the parents discipline their children at home, then we are the ones that get into trouble. Can you imagine growing up without any supervision to speak of, then one day you become old enough to be held accountable and the rules all change? What you had been getting away with at home and school you are now being held accountable for.
Maybe the old story that says that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks has a lot of truth to it. Then why not start teaching at a younger age where you are a lot more impressionable? Are we too far gone to correct this problem? I don’t think so, but it will take several generations to change the mindset of everyone.
on July 12th, 2008 at 6:08 pm:
Our society has succumbed to the necessary defense mechanisms of protecting our property because of the rise of the degenerates. As a society, we have not done a good enough job instilling good moral and ethical behavior in our younger generations and we are paying the price. Society as a whole lacks the true concept of sharing, trust, and honesty and that starts at a very young age.
Families have long been under pressure and half disintegrate into split families with the children paying the majority of the price. Without proper teaching and learning, the children will develop into a group of people who know no limits in their lives. Like you say, they have had no supervision and when confronted with rules and regulations later in life, they mean nothing to them.
Teaching our young ones is imperative for removing the concepts of some of our castle walls in our future. Without trying to change the landscape at the heart of an issue, we are only fixing symptoms while leaving the sickness unchallenged.
on July 12th, 2008 at 4:24 pm:
Building walls, that will never be done away with, individualy or as a group. But the more people try to change that concept, I believe the world will be a better place to live. I know I could do a better job of knocking down some walls of my own. That means more trust in the world and stop looking for any undesireable traits in others, but accept them as they are. Build true friendships, get involved with voting for the best leaders available for our country. Bottom line, I think we should stop being so self absorbed with ourself and our belongings and our feelings.
on July 12th, 2008 at 6:02 pm:
I agree, we can never remove the concept of castle walls from our lives, but we can choose to minimize their effects and reach into our lives. Trust and honesty are hard to find in our society and our walls are a necessary defense we have built in place for personal protection. We are easily hurt and rejected at times when we allow our walls to be overcome. I believe we can move forward as you say, being less self absorbed about our own world and focus more on what’s going on around us and within our own families.