The Penguin

January 20th, 2026

Late last week, I was corrupting my mind scrolling on Instagram reels. This is generally a task that I find to be a waste of my time, because usually, it is. This time, though, I saw something out of the ordinary. Something thought provoking, something real. A clip from the documentary "Encounters at the End of the World" of a penguin. In the clip, the penguin was in a place between its feeding ground, and its colony, but instead of going to either of the two places it was most familiar with, it headed towards the mountains, a long 70km from where it currently stood. This is a very brief description of the clip, and it doesn't really do it proper justice. I recommend watching the full clip:

The original title this clip was posted as is "Penguin, Depressed...", but since having seen this clip for the first time, I have seen a number of edits of the clip suggesting that this penguin's march to death is not a sign of depression, but rather an innate desire to wonder, to explore, and to discover. They seem to suggest that this penguin wasn't "deranged", as the narrator describes it, but rather as something above its peers, something closer to humans.

Immediately after having seen the clip, I was brought to mind Ursula LeGuin's short story "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas". Again, I reccomend reading this story before you continue reading this blog, as it is only a few pages long, but I will also give a brief summary. Read it here. Omelas is a place of absolute utopia. Everyone there is happy, and everyone is content, save one. In order for those in Omelas to remain in bliss, one child must be locked away, and made to suffer. Sometimes, the people of Omelas gather around the prison the child is stored in, and they can get a glimpse of it. Sometimes, after witnessing the only suffering in their world, people become fascinated, and return to see the child again. Most see it once and never come back again. But there is a third option. Rarely, those who see the child stop at once, and they leave Omelas. They get up and they walk away into the mountains, never to be seen again.

There are some clear parallels between the penguin's and LeGuin's stories, primarily in the walking away towards the mountain. The issue lies in that the penguin seemingly leaves with no catalyst, while the witness of an atrocity against a child is the seeming stimulus for those in Omelas. I think that when people see the penguin, they assume that its purpose for leaving must be boredom and sickness with the monotiny of its miserable penguin life. I do not think this is why the penguin leaves. People are too used to suffering, and they project their desire for liberty from the shackles of the world onto the penguin, who is inspired by something entirely different. Omelas is real in a sense, but we are the child. We suffer to supply the ecstasy of the few, and we use things like the penguin to redirect our shame and suffering onto something that cannot truly conceive it to distract ourselves from how truly miserable it is to exist.

If the penguin does not leave because of its own suffering, then why does it? I'm sure that there is someone better qualified to tell you this. Some neurological function unknown to all but the most well-educated wildlife scientists likely controls this abnormal behavior, which isn't exclusive to this individual, or even this species, apparently. Perhaps the penguin truly is tired of its repetitive life, and is truly attempting to discover and explore, but even if this is the case, its creative desires are not fueled by what drives human creativity, as it has not yet experienced it, although it seems like the time is coming. Humans are driven by that which oppresses them. Their overbearing boss, their strict parents, their restrictive governments, their unpassionate teacher, are what drive people to create.

I feel this is the root of a deeper paradox in humanity. People are naturally driven towards comfort and towards equality, and peace, etc., but I'm afraid that if too much we are granted comfort and peace, we will become nothing. We get where change is no longer desirable, so it stops happening. This is of course, speculation, and I'm just some kid on the internet, and I believe that we still need to strive for a better, more comfortable world for all, but it's just something I think about.

Anyways, I think I might have strayed away from whatever point I was trying to make at the beginning, but I do think I maybe said something meaningful somewhere. These blogs are pretty rambling, and not grammar checked or even proofread, just my ideas right out of the oven, so probably nothing too deep will happen here. Regardless, thank you for reading!