A Clockwork Race

We've become cheap about more things than respect. People begin to live mechanically, taking one day after the other like they're never going to end, like we've got nothing left except the monotony of sunrises coming before sunsets. We get out of bed, we pull ourselves together, and walk outside into the fog. How much of yourself do you think you can find in the fog?
And we kid ourselves, we feed on bite-sized chunks of illusion. We go to a movie, we walk in the park, we wear sunglasses and we go shopping. But do those things make us alive? Everyone who's bored simply finds something to do, but does that constitute living? Does that constitute being free?
I wonder where exactly along the way we've lost our clarity of mind, our sheer joy of living. I wonder if we've ever had those. Is the entire human race prone to idleness or is it just the carbon dioxide coming out of the exhaust pipes clouding our judgement? How have we become so attached to our precious monotony that we're content with nothing more, and nothing less but our daily activities?
Why does nobody feel the need to go cliff-diving? Why does nobody feel the urge to smile to people on the street? Why does this fog we're stumbling in make us all reject the possibility that we matter as individuals? Why have we lost the faith in our power to change the world? Why does the vast majority know so little and care even less?

What are we doing with our existences? We've got a limited amount of time on earth, and we're wasting it because we haven't got the nerve to step up and step out of this suffocating cage we call a living. Let's work together, let's shape our cage of human limtations, let's expand its soft aluminium bars. Maybe, one day, someone will even unlock it.
Moreover, it's hard not to hit the "repeat" button in such a world. You lose interest, you lose focus, you lose all feeling except that tiny twinge of fatigue. You're forced by this invisible hand (who demolishes personalities and builds cold politeness) to be a human like the rest. How much more will people hang on to their schedule and bend to the unwritten rules of the system they live in?

So, what time did you say you're waking up tomorrow?

P.S.: "With the moonlight to guide you/Feel the joy of being alive/The day that you stop running/Is the day that you arrive" - Enjoy the Ride, Morcheeba (album: Dive Deep)
P.P.S.: The photo dates back to 1964, and it's University Square in Bucharest.