Did Kafka predict the fate of man in modern times?

RUBA AYYASH

Did Kafka predict the fate of man in modern times?
Is it written for man to become a monster?
Has modern man really turned into Kafka’s cockroach?

This question came to my mind as I re-read The Transformation (1915), in which Gregor Samsa wakes up to find himself transformed into a giant insect.

This transformation was not, in essence, a fictional tale of physical metamorphosis, but a terrifying metaphor for man’s fate in a world where he loses his meaning, and his value is measured only by his ability to produce.
For Kafka, the cockroach was a symbol of injustice, oppression, confusion, isolation, and loss.
Hence the question: Did Kafka predict the future without knowing it?

Did Kafka predict the fate of man in modern times?

Today, modern man lives in a world where alienation is widespread, and humanity is narrow.
A world in which meaning is robbed, the soul and soul are drained, and we are trapped in an invisible prison, whose walls are made of economic fragility, extreme capitalism, loans and banks, military wars, rampant poverty and unemployment, and ongoing displacement movements. Jobs that drain a person in his health, time and money, so that he remains a prisoner of the “mouse wheel“.

And the worst?
Be a prisoner of social media platforms. I am a prisoner of the illusion of luxury.
Circus. It works around the clock to distract him, giving him a short-acting joy, like a fast-fading opium… He pursues him, and his illusions follow with him.
Kafka’s writing more than a century ago seems to be an accurate description of modern man, especially in light of the economic, digital, political, social, and intelligence systems that govern our lives.

“Modern man may not look like a cockroach, and many may object. How dare you call a human a cockroach? But I mean Kafka’s cockroach… Not any cockroach.“

In The Transformation, Gregor, a street vendor who supports his family and pays off his father’s debts, does not scream in terror at his new body, but worries that he will be late for work. Here’s the basic idea. Gregor was a monster before he became an insect. He was a prisoner of the regime before he turned into an isolated insect in a room.

He lived a man deprived of himself, without a personal life, without desires, just an economic tool. When he lost his ability to work, he lost his value in the eyes of his family and society. He was isolated in his room, treated like a burden, and then left to die in silence, while the family began a new life without him.
It is the harshest form of objectification of man. And to make it nothing.

Today, power in the world order that shapes our present and future no longer needs a closed room that isolates the individual. The modern economic, digital, media, and political system makes man imprison himself.
He works long hours in jobs that have no real meaning, only to survive. He sinks into debt to buy the illusion of luxury. He postpones his dreams in the name of “stability.” Its value is measured by the number of likes, promotions, and numbers.
Modern man may not look like a cockroach, and many may object. How dare you call a human a cockroach?
But I mean Kafka’s cockroach… Not any cockroach.
Isn’t modern man fragile? Unable to determine his own destiny? Replaceable at any moment?
He tries to see himself as a butterfly, and then is forced to look like a “dinosaur” or a “star” on social media, while deep down he is known as Gregor Samsa.

He is in the prison of the “fate of work” or rather in the destiny of the need for the dollar (or any currency that determines survival).
It works what it doesn’t like because it’s “stable.” He puts off his dreams because he “has neither time nor money.” He returns home exhausted, with no energy to live a real life.
Does this mean that I am attacking a system based on production, creativity and work? No of course not.. But I attack an unjust regime. There are no clear laws in it. Laws can be adapted and manipulated to serve who manages and who governs.
Then you say that modern man has not turned into a metamorphosis?

RUBA AYYASH: Multimedia Journalist @ Sky News Arabia ; Master’s in Journalism, Abu Dhabi Emirate, United Arab Emirates

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