The term “rat race” originally referred to a dance in the 1930s, but now metaphorically describes the futile and repetitive existence of lab rats and some humans. While some people generalize it to mean the sum total of existence, reducing the human condition to one is inaccurate and overdone.
It might surprise you to learn that the rat race was once a dance to jazz music, originally coined in the 1930s. It was one of the variety of animal-named dances, such as the trot turkey or rabbit hop, that were popular among teenagers. Current usage has nothing to do with dance and can metaphorically refer to the futile existence of laboratory rats who are condemned to traverse mazes daily to receive a prize at the end. These rats make no progress, but they’re like Sisyphus, pushing the boulder up the hill every day, only to have it roll again, so the whole process has to repeat itself.
The lab rats who run mazes go nowhere and repeat the same events, at least part of the time. Their lives are an endless series of trials with few rewards. They also spend their lives in cages when they are not in a rat race.
Modern usage of the term tends to refer to the working environment of humans, which for some is interpreted as a place of competition or unrewarded work or meaningless work. For the most pessimistic of people, the daily rat race offers no chance for future success and recognizes no chance for invention, excitement, or entertainment. It could also be compared to the phrase running on a treadmill. You keep running to keep up, but you get nowhere.
While rat race may be occupation-specific, some people generalize the term to mean the sum total of existence, perhaps based in capitalist or market economies. In this sense, the rat race might be the state of trying to keep up with others, a futile competition that gets nowhere. William Wordsworth, the English Romantic poet expresses this sentiment, long before the term rat race was coined, in the sonnet The World is Too Much with Us; Late and Early:
The world is too much with us; late and early
Getting and spending, we wreak havoc on our powers:
Little that is seen in nature that belongs to us;
We have given away our hearts, a sordid boon!
Calling human existence a rat race tends to overgeneralize the existence of half-empty minded people. It is rare that a human life is completely useless, that there are no moments of joy, success, happiness and other kinds of emotional richness. To suggest that life is simply a series of futile exercises makes the very mess of human existence a lie and instead creates the impression that life is a clinical and predictable set of the same repeated actions and results. It is pure hyperbole or at least poetic license to compare life with laboratory rats. While it sometimes feels like we are all running a rat race in actions that seem futile and repeat themselves without much progress, reducing the sum total of the human condition to one is inaccurate and overdone.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
