The system doesn’t need to cage you physically — it only needs to starve your imagination until you can no longer visualize any life beyond the one you’re already in. In practice this means your days become repetitive, your environment becomes predictable, and your attention is drained by low-value stimulation until your inner world dries out and you stop generating new possibilities. When imagination collapses, you stop dreaming, you stop initiating, and you stop believing you can change anything real — not because you’re weak, but because you literally cannot see a different future anymore. Men lose imagination through overwork and numbness; women lose it through perfectionism, over-responsibility, and emotional depletion — different paths, same outcome. The blade cuts deepest when you understand that the cage became effective the moment you stopped imagining the door.