The smartest prison ever built is one the inmates do not recognise as a prison.
When the walls are made of comfort, the bars are made of debt, the guards are made of social pressure, and the locks are made of distraction — the prisoner does not seek escape.
The prisoner seeks promotion. The prisoner defends the architecture, because the architecture is all they have ever known, and to question it would be to question the foundation of their entire identity. Their job. Their mortgage. Their qualifications. Their obedience. Everything they were praised for. Everything they built their life upon.
To see the prison is to lose everything that made sense inside it. Most people choose not to see. Are 'free-range' chickens really 'free'?
If a prison provides comfort, entertainment, medicine and the illusion of choice — is it still a prison?
And, if the inmates defend their own captivity — who will free them?
