How does a person become a cow? How does our potential go from virtually unlimited to basically zilch? How do we end up so small and tightly circumscribed, so indistinguishable from those around us, so finite? Where did we go so grotesquely astray? I am mystified by how easily virtually everyone just slips into their assumed or assigned roles with nothing to compel them but obedience, mimicry and filial piety. Not just a few people here and there, but everyone, everywhere, all the time. There is no one outside this obligatory downsizing, no one who even suspects there might be more. Is it fear or indoctrination, or is it just the crushing inward pressure of the surrounding herd which leaves no alternative to total compliance? Born of cows and raised by cows, it seems natural to become a cow, but I find it unnatural, zombie-esque and, viewed objectively, appalling.