escape the fate of being domesticated and become truly independent and whole individuals

In the world we live in, countless ordinary people seem to have been unwittingly domesticated into "beasts of burden." This phenomenon is underpinned by a hidden logic. Take cows, for example; a thin rope is enough to tether them, forcing them to toil silently in the fields for a lifetime. This situation bears a striking resemblance to the plight of ordinary people. Power plays a crucial role in this dynamic. Those who wield power also control the rules, and these seemingly neutral rules actually serve the interests of the privileged. While the notion of equality is loudly proclaimed, numerous real-world phenomena starkly contradict this ideal. For instance, the incident where a luxury car was driven into the Forbidden City—a place where even the last emperor, Puyi, had to buy a ticket to enter—became a parking lot for certain "elites." In companies, supposedly fair and open promotion rules drive countless people to voluntarily work overtime and engage in internal competition, unaware that the top positions have already been reserved for the leaders' connections. Power is often transferred through these relationships. When rules conflict with human nature, most people, fearing the punishment for breaking them, gradually develop a conditioned reflex of compliance. They transform from independent thinkers into mere tools of production, accepting unreasonable rules without question and viewing non-conformists as outliers.

Resource monopolies also exploit ordinary people. Capitalism has turned essentials like education, healthcare, and housing into financial products. Ordinary people strive to buy homes in good school districts for their children's education, fear illness and the associated costs, and are burdened by mortgages and car loans. Survival anxiety keeps them from quitting their jobs easily. Society preaches that hard work leads to success, but in reality, while ordinary people worry about fluctuating food prices and seek ways to save money, capital and power elites manipulate inflation formulas and wealth distribution algorithms behind the scenes. True poverty lies in the shallowness of cognition.

Information domestication is an even more insidious advanced tactic. The "information cocoon" ensures that ordinary people only encounter information that pleases them. Algorithms push content that makes people feel good, filling their minds with celebrity gossip, reality show dramas, and trending topics. People become lost in this world, seeing only what the information monopolists want them to see, ultimately becoming impatient, thoughtless, and numb individuals. Once trapped in this "social domestication system," people are awakened by alarm clocks, rush to work, and accept overtime as the norm. They gradually lose their enthusiasm for life, mechanically repeating predetermined routines like domesticated beasts of burden.

So, how can ordinary people break free from this cycle? The first step is to elevate their cognitive level and understand how they have been domesticated step by step. In the face of power monopolies, they must bravely question unreasonable rules and exercise their civic rights to promote the monitoring and balancing of power. When confronted with resource monopolies, they should enhance their abilities and explore alternative channels for acquiring resources, participating in the redistribution of social resources. To counter information monopolies, they must cultivate independent thinking, discern the truth from falsehood, and engage with a wide range of information, using critical thinking to break free from cognitive prisons. Only by stepping out of the script set by the monopolists, using logic to deconstruct rules, interests to restructure resources, and truth to penetrate information, can we escape the fate of being domesticated and become truly independent and whole individuals.