there are two really salient points in his story for me. the first is that no one even realized he was trapped in the elevators the whole time. not the 8 security guards who ostensibly sat in front of the video monitors watching him pacing around and waving at the security camera mounted in Car 4 for nearly two straight days, not the attendants in the lobby where the elevator never returned, not the servicemen who took care of multiple repairs in the other elevators, not even his colleague, who instead taped a snide note onto his computer screen so everyone could see that he'd left her in the lurch.
the other point is more mundane, and yet closer-hitting. this idea that we live in a world over which our ability to control is just an illusion--one which we must create ourselves to trick ourselves, metaphorically illustrated by the door-close button in the elevator. a button whose main purpose is to "make you think it works", providing an outlet for the primal fear of losing control of one's surroundings once you step into that steel and concrete box dangling over thousands of feet of yawning nothing. most of us, step into one of these every day. putting our lives and fate into a mechanism of which we understand relatively little, if anything. and yet, we do it, cajoling ourselves into believing that we, not the elevator, are the ones in control. how many times have you watched someone, or yourself, step in and automatically reach for the door-close button. and of course, that the doors eventually do close, which only serves as evidence for our need to believe in the purpose and authority of that button. as nick paumgarten writes, "Elevator design is rooted in deception—to disguise not only the bare fact of the box hanging by ropes but also the tethering of tenants to a system over which they have no command." isn't it the same with the world we design around ourselves?
just saying.
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