What it is
The sheep machine is a name for the systems that process humans like livestock while making them grateful for it. Its parts include artificial scarcity, hyper-individualism, algorithmic manipulation, queue psychology, status-emulation cycles, subscription treadmills, the fast-pass mentality, and endorphin exploitation.
How it shows up for me
I named it after a multi-hour line at a theme park, surrounded by people who had paid extra to wait slightly less. Including me. It made me laugh, and then it made me look at how many of my days are built the same way.