The question arises when the outcome of our decision in life hits a brick wall, despite following set guidelines. It makes one wonder, "what's going on?" Could it be a "different strokes for different folks" situation or some missing links which aren't thoroughly put to consideration? A deliberate plot to keep people under the watch of a viscous cycle?

One is about to be born into a family. Natural biology would ascertain if that would be a male or female. Before and upon conception, the sex is ascertained. Consequently, the gender, "male" or "female", is primarily assigned to the baby. The baby is clueless about the assigned identity. Depending on the culture of the family the baby is born into, a name---a legal fiction of an identity---is assigned to the child as part of his or her identity. In a few months, the child is nurtured to observe and learn patterns depicted by parents, other regular family members, neighbours, and well wishers, having to identify them. Ultimately, the child gets to connect with the fact that the name assigned is the name to be answered. 

In the formative years of the child, having accepted the name assigned, the surname, included,  basic family culture and traditions, offerings, and responsibilities would have  to be imbibed as part of his or her obligations to the unit of society. That's  the microcosm of it. At that point, the child has no choice than to accept the conditioning early in life. That becomes his or her obligations to the family. The pattern is enforced in a number of ways, on a  macrocosmic scale.

Education: Throughout the formative years of the child, that is between the ages of three to thirteen years, the school's value system is expressed in the life of the child, further enforcing extensively the value system of his or family. Assigned class-works, tests, take-home assignments, examinations are put in place to ascertain the child's level of comprehension of values being taught. It is anticipated the child passes them, confirming the grasp of such "knowledge" and consequent acceptance of such norm as part and parcel of the child's development.

Religion: Given the belief system in the family that child is born and being raised, an extension would be citadels where the child would be made to routinely visit to hear in more detail and "better" understanding the words of the teacher, rabbi, pastor, master, or other familiar religious clergy on what resonates with the family's belief. The formative years  of the child are characterized by depicted follow-ups of understood beliefs which would become part of his or her underlying principles, later in life.

Media: It is expectedly instrumental to projected family values through visual and audio depictions. In the growing years of the child, certain programs on TV, radio and some children-friendly print publications are fed consciously, sub-consciously, and seldomly unconsciously to elaborate in illustrated terms taught family values. Caring parents ensure "parental guidance and restrictions" to what their children watch, hear and even read.

Business: If the child is born into a family of a known generational business legacy, shipping line enterprise, say, the family tradition, when it comes to how it has been done from the founding father or mother, would be passed across to the child. He or she might seldom go to see the working environment, identify with the workers and possibly, meet other players in the industry, particularly when that child becomes a young adult.

Peers/Friends: Parents are highly fixated on the company the company their children keep. They know, just as their parents told them, growing up, an individual is judged by the company he or she keeps. That legacy is relevantly being upheld and  put in effect in the life of the child's social stance, when it comes to people being associated with. Families ensure their young mix well with their likes. This is to cement and resonate thoroughly the family's rectitude in the life of the child.

The child grows up with the indices, thinking life revolve around such. Alas the realization becomes somewhat clearer, prompting certain concerns....

Education: From entering the walls of elementary school education to graduating from the premises of higher education, the adult begins to notice mixed signals. Prior to that, as a child to even a young adult, his training was tailored in a way which saw education as key to success. There is much vested interest and motivation to become "educated". As a result, he becomes certified, qualified and prepared for the labour market. Down the road to finding that craved-for job, the realization becomes frightening: the "educated" are hardly employable and the employed are actually working for those who are considered "less-educated", or "uneducated". The impression of education, being designed to enable one think, might come, if it ever comes, too late.  It becomes unpalatable when there are no clear-cut answers as to why education practically doesn't translate to being successful, from stakeholders, authorities or teachers of such endeavors. That adds a "layer of unanswered question"

Religion: The child witnesses first-hand pockets of heated religious crises, never-ending debates, irreconcilable differences in beliefs he or she was conditioned to uphold, the eventual division of what was taught to be a unifying force. As a growing teenager, seeking valid responses from perceived religious authorities or those who the family have established strong accords with, as to why religion  is not turning out the way it was taught, wouldn't be a bad idea but the situation where it becomes a stringent "Do Not Ask" outcome adds another "layer of unanswered question"

Media: Over the years, the child had had his or her eyes to glued to TV screen, listen to several radio stations, read several print publications, which expectedly resonates with what his or her parents had impacted in her. Howbeit, the question as to some observed discrepancies emerge. The "courage" to seek answers from his or her parents become imperative but met with a staggeringly weird responses. Some parents would assert that's how their parents  told them. Hence, what they know currently. Others wouldn't respond, leaving that son or daughter of theirs to wander mentally. That adds yet another "layer of unanswered question "

Friends/Peers: The child grows up to be faced with overwhelming multimedia networks "unaliving" the human connection he or she once had with his friends and person. The virtual reality sets in when communication can run through an array of matters which shift direction  from what the family's anticipation was, regarding the company kept. He or she could be taught that one of the ways in making it in life is the company being kept. However, the multimedia platforms (social media networks) doesn't require any form of human connection to drive home a point of success, particularly in this age of Artificial intelligence. A "layer of unanswered question" still sets in when those who had taught him or her interests that cut across the lines of friendship can't provide see-through answers as to why friendship, as it is currently perceived, could thrive without "the necessary human connection"

Given the "layers of answered questions ', the once-a-child, now-a-grown-adult logically extrapolates across the wide spectrum of government, modern medicine, business, science, law. The following questions arise:

"Was government designed to police freedom? All happenings in my society and around the world seem to be engineered towards one thing: the control of freedom "

"Was education aimed at short-living knowledge? I was told education makes us think, not just simply read and write. But it appears there's a pattern to indoctrinate people into being more of job seekers, instead of job creators"

"Was modern medicine structured to truncate good health. My parents went to the hospital and subsequently felt healthy. They lived long. But it is becoming apparent people are now dying from more of prescribed medications than diagnosed or reported ailments "

"Was business fashioned to milk people out of their ignorance? My parents taught me the family tradition in business is to legitimately maximize profits and as much as possible, minimize losses". Sadly, it becomes seemingly the case of an arrangement to profit desperately out of  mass ignorance of the people."

"Was science designed to deny us truth? I was told our world is three dimensional: length width and height. But the three dimensions are of visible light which is just a narrow band of frequency. Aren't there possibilities of higher frequencies our eyes can decode?"

"Was law orchestrated to absent justice? Apparently, the higher-ups are favored by the law even if their wrongs are evident but  poor people are at the short end of the stick when it comes to justice."

The individual reflects possibly later in life, as someone who owes his family a great deal of responsibilities. "Am I born into this family to bear a name which I didn't ask for, Am I taught a  culture I wasn't associated with, and an overall value system that I wasn't familiar with, from birth? 

When the perceived time for settling down in marriage sets in, his or her family mounts pressure for marriage, even if it's not in his or her current priority. If such individual bows out to pressure, the possibility of repeating the familial pattern or continuing the legacy of what was learnt as a child to his or her child becomes established. After all, one can't give what wasn't possessed.  As a consequence, the "suffering " resulting from  desire of being responsible, pain from working round the clock to meet up, disappoinment in set plans for the family, birthing of his or her children, ageing of his parents and disease encountered by family members would add to the unanswered layers of questions, unaddressed concerns about the clarity about education, modern medicine, science, law and business. 

One begins to ask, "are we living the life of authenticity" and "are we living the life scripted for us"?