I have been very fortunate over the past week to be part of an intellectual discussion with one of the most respected U.S. Doctors in the fitness industry.
At the beginning of our discussion, I used my favorite allegorical story of Plato’s Charioteer to describe our neurological dilemma concerning impulsive behaviors.
If you are not familiar with the story, please read my blog regarding appetites.
This is how our discussion began:
Kelly: How do you stop a stampede? (Stampede… referring to 68% of US adults being overweight or obese)
Dr: “You can’t stop a stampede. But both biology and a stampede can be guided and redirected.”
The Dr. also stated, “it’s like using judo…you don’t stop a punch…you redirect it.”
The Docs insightful comments really made me reconsider my position.
I think the stampede analogy I used does a colossal disservice to the state of affairs that our country is experiencing.
Maybe a better question would have been, “How do we stop a Tsunami?”
What is a Tsunami?
The principal generation mechanism (or cause) of a tsunami is the displacement of a substantial volume of water or perturbation (agitation) of the sea. This displacement of water is usually attributed to landslides, volcanic eruptions, glacier calving or Tectonic shifts in the sea floor.
I am not aware of any known solution to stopping, controlling, or diverting the path of a Tsunami…other than just seeking higher ground.
Are we experiencing Tsunami in America?
The principal generation mechanism of an American Tsunami (i.e. obesity) is the overwhelming lack of impulse control and the apathetic perturbation (lack of concern to be alarmed…indifference to agitation) of our current social structure. The deterioration of impulse control is usually attributed to the supply and demand conundrum that accompanies a “highly evolved” (sarcasm) society.
Many of the paradoxical characteristics of this type of failed social structure are:
~ Easy life begat sedentary lifestyle and a loss of fitness
~ Abundance of food begat overweight health dilemmas
~ Boredom begat misguided/irrational anxiety and an unfulfilled purpose in life
~ Social network (i.e. 24 hour TV…news and reality shows, My Space, Face Book, Dating sites, etc.) begat false sense of reality and delusions of adequacy…24 hour limbic (impulsive) stimulation
Tsunami warning
In 2010 most surveys show that 68% of adult Americas are over weight or obese. 30% of school aged children fall into this same category. This is the first time in our species history that many parents are predicted to out live their children. 50% of marriages end in divorce and our country is trillions of dollars in debt. This has been/is our Tsunami warning.
The Aftermath
With great sadness, I propose we cannot stop, control, or use judo when it comes to the path of an American Tsunami. The tectonic shift in our social structure floor has thrust upon us a wave of addictions that can only be surfed by another impulsive action which ultimately brings us crashing back into the shore.
Those who have moved to a higher ground will only be able to set back and watch the cyclical destruction that comes from the societal undertow of a compulsive unrestrained life…slowly pulling people back into the sea of despair.
You have to die before you can be resurrected
A new day will come and it will be our chance to do it all over again. What will we do?
Will we reconstruct our traditional society emphasizing the pleasure that results from the excesses of power, fame and the trivial pursuits in life?
Or will we create a new society that values virtue and emphasizes the absence of pain that comes with a life lived in moderation?
What will we do?
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”
4 comments:
man, you need an image on this post. Like this one: The End is Near
We've already had our discussion...that I'm not ready to give up on humanity yet (no matter how chubby we are.) But I can be a bit of a Pollyanna, I know.
You are quaffing drink from a hundred fountains. When one of these hundred fountains yields less, your pleasure is diminished. But when the sublime fountain gushes from within you no longer need to steal from the other fountains."rumi"
Maybe the wellspring from which the tsunami you dedcribe gains force comes from the inability of some people to look Inward for satisfaction. Some fit people have found a way to gain their satisfaction from inside in a purely physiological sense (endorphin rush following intense exercise). This is but one way to feed from the fountain within. You could also gain pleasure from drinking from the mental fountain that also comes from within by gaining knowledge or maybe from the emotional/spiritual fountain by coming to understand yourself better and finding peace with what you find yourself to be. People are so busy trying to please themselves with things from the outside that maybe they have forgotten how to find happiness within. Maybe you can divert their thirst like judo towards something more lasting: health, wisdom, inner peace. It is going to take giving them a full awareness that these ways of finding happiness can be as attainable and fulfilling as the ways in which they are improperly trying to attain it or they won't be interested.
Melissa...good title. I wish I used it:)
I have not given up, but I am a realist. We are facing problems in an enviroment different from any time in our history.
In modernity evolution explodes as is evident in the obesity rate. Blaming reps and dems is just a smoke screen to blurr the real problem...us. We have to change our habits. Greed, glutony, and envy seems to be the flavor of the day. Virtue is something that only happens in movies.
I am very excited for my familys future, but I am very sad about our current social structure.
Danny...I agree. Unfortuantly the pleasure that is hard wired at an early age is hard to overcome as an adult.
"When will the pain subside...when we learn from its lessons"
Maybe we will learn before its too late??
I guess if we don't overcome it, then it is our fate to destroy ourselves and part of the natural selection that we don't remain the dominant species. A new one will take our place and probably do the same thing we did. The biggest and the smartest dominate for a while and ultimately kill themselves off through overconsumption(humans, possibly dinosaurs) and the weakest and dumbest remain no matter what (roaches, armadillos). So who's really smarter?
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