The Spider In The Clockwork – A Sociocultural Archetype

Nested within the complex gearwork it sits, with its webs spanning across the tightly forged labyrinth. Its eggs obstruct the cogwheels lest they break the spider's delicate chitin. In its hapless endeavour it sustains itself from the fluids that oil the complex wheelwork of the clock, further manipulating the ill-choice domicile in its functionality.

 

Exposed to a hostile environment that isn't tailoured for inhabiting living creatures, The Spider In The Clockwork resorts to machiavellic actions, obstructing and deconstructing its environment to its fancy. Doing so it follows no malicious intent though, being entirely oblivious to the fact that the construction that surrounds it serves a function beyond what can be observed internally. It did not choose its habitat, nor could it choose a different one for it is trapped.

 

Where can one find such spiders?

Look above to the men and women in high castles if you are lazy in thought, look below to the people in the street if you have no regard for the rougher sets of survivalism, but if you are courageous and adventurous in mind look inward: what burdens may beset you, urging you to retire into your own internal clockwork, making them your living quarters? What worlds do you reside in that weren't made for you?

What parts the tyrant from the tyranised is not the sharpness of his sword; it's the sword's opacity.