We've all heard it and we've all had our own theories about fad diets and fitness trends. From no carbs to CrossFit, everyone is an "expert" on fitnessology (just made that up. Sounds legit, doesn't it?).
The following is a quick list of myths that circulate the health and fitness world that just aren't true:
1. Chemicals are bad for you
-Tricalcium phosphate, Disodium Phosphate, Mono and Diglycerides, Carrageenan, Sucralose,
Acesulfame, Potassium, Vitamin A Palmitate, and Vitamin D3
If that all sounds scary to you, then you should send your mother an angry text message before reading on because what I just listed there are the ingredients found in milk. That's right, the same chemicals that your parents force fed you as a baby. I'm not quite sure where the origin of this fear for chemicals came from, but I think what people mean by chemicals is pharmaceuticals. If that's the case, then I can see the argument. But it's because of blurred lines that we've arrived to the point where "chemicals" just means bad stuff. Everything is made out of chemicals, so don't be so quick to dismiss something just because someone told you that it's a chemical.
Mmm, Tricalcium Phosphate
2. Squats are bad for the knees
Truth be told, the reverse is actually true. NOT squatting is bad for your knees. And really, the issue isn't with the exercise, it's with improper form. Which can be said about anything mechanical you do with your body. Seriously, try getting out of bed without bending your knees or only using your arms. That would be bad form. Any exercise (or movement) when improperly executed is a dangerous one and the reason people get hurt when they squat is because they try and pack on more weight on the bar than they can handle, have improper form, or are not flexible enough (yet) to execute it. There are dudes squatting 700lbs and somehow they are not wheel-chair bound.
Looks like the dude can walk just fine to me!
3. Stretching before a workout is bad for your joints
This one is a pretty heavily contested issue in the sports world. In my experiences, doing dynamic (moving around) and static (paused, holding a stretch) stretching before a workout actually increases my range of motion during an exercise. The critique is often that when you are not warmed up and begin to stretch, the muscle/joint will tweak and you'll hurt yourself. This is very true in fact that going from a state of inactivity to stretching can irritate or even injure you. The solution to this however is to warm up. Routine can go: 5 minute cardiovascular work, 2 minutes dynamic stretching, 15 minutes deep/static stretching, then weight-lift. You'll feel a lot better and find your range of motion dramatically increased. Doing so over time will grant you flexibility that pays off big time in the weightroom.
Mr. Olympia Competitor Kai Greene certainly takes advantage of stretching for flexibility
4. Fats make you fat
Fats do not make you fat. Eating healthy fats promotes good blood flow, is anti-inflammatory and actually has cognitive (your head muscle) benefits. Behind carbohydrates, fats are actually the second easiest of the macronutrients (carbs, protein, fats) to be converted into energy (which is good in case you wanna, you know, do stuff). You get fat by eating more calories than you burn. 1 pound of body fat is made from 3500 excess calories. Therefore, if you eat roughly 500 more calories in a day than you burn off, you'll be gaining 1 pound a week. This is how you get fat. Leave the fats out of it.
5. Doing a million sit ups will give you abs
Abs are made in the kitchen. Simple as that. While training your core and abdominal will build mass and give you strength, if your body fat % is too high then they just won't show. This is tied to the above myth. It's why really skinny guys can have a 6 pack and dudes like Bill Kazmaier (below) - who was a strongman competitor - do not.
Behold! The muscle gut!
6. I'm a girl and lifting heavy weights will make me bulky like the Lost Batman
This one is a shame and I feel for you ladies. There aren't a whole lot of girls that I know that want to have massive shoulders, wide backs, massive arms and a muscle gut like our friend Bill above. Thankfully for most of you, there are a bunch of physiological differences for women that aren't necessarily nurturing of the Schwarzenegger look. One of which is testosterone. Female bodybuilders (the really really really big ones) take testosterone and human growth hormone boosters to get that big. Naturally, the female body typically does not produce even CLOSE to the amount of testosterone needed to develop muscles that are huge and clunky and monster-like. Instead, lifting heavy weights will make you 1) Harder 2) Better 3) Faster 4) Stronger. Strong is sexy, ladies. Don't be afraid to build power and explosiveness while toning up by pulling heavy weight
Unfortunately, the form isn't the greatest in the world, but it still delivers the same message I'm trying to. You can lift heavy weight and not be bulky. You go girl!
These are my sincere conclusions and insight into these topics. Of course, I would love to support my claims with evidence if asked of me but in the end you must realize that these are MY thoughts and I would never claim to be an expert on the subject or some sort of information wizard (although I am pretty dang good). Open to debate and discussion!
As a quick disclaiming statement: I use a pretty harsh tongue about some issues including obesity, self-disrespect, pity and indulgence in this post. Although I may come off as overly critical and cruel, this is a very sincere reflection of experiences I have had with battling weight and delusion for a pretty difficult time in my teens.
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A lot of what my posts are going to be about will reflect my philosophies about working out and more importantly: training. Firstly, there is not a distinct method of training or workout style that I personally view as supreme or even my favourite. I respect all disciplines whether it's bodybuilding, powerlifting, athletics, general fitness, or whatever. What I get most excited about is using the body and seeing just how much it can improve day-by-day. Testing the limits that you are capable of reaching and then breaking past what you thought was possible is an event so gratifying and powerful that it is often electric. Those of you who have set fitness goals and achieved them know exactly what I mean.
This improvement is not just physical for me. When I first started working out I was a bucket of lard. Weighing in at 275lbs at the start of my senior year in high school, I reached a breaking point where I told myself that living that way was just not an option anymore. I was done telling myself that I was an athletic fat guy or that my genetics were to blame for my appearance. These were just lies that I used to try and mask my laziness and fear to commit.
Ask me 5 years ago what I see in this picture? I'd say a worthless, volatile human being.
The fear to commit is a very real phobia. When you're that out of shape and you feel as disgusting as I did on a daily basis, you're essentially in a state of constant vulnerability. Sure you can try and mentally train yourself to ignore the fear of rejection - tell yourself that you're beautiful on the inside and that's all that matters. I did that and sometimes it worked. The lies made me feel less vulnerable for a stretch of time. I had been able to develop a comfort zone where I was content being as obese as I was where any infraction on my comfort zone only lasted a few minutes before I found peace in the lies again. These infractions were very simple and happened semi-frequently throughout a normal day.
Standing up from your seat and seeing it pooled with sweat even though you weren't doing anything strenuous at all was an infraction on my comfort zone I faced more than a couple times a day. It really is embarrassing and I would pray to god that no one else sitting near me noticed the sweat on my seat. Or the hope that no one dared have a conversation with me while we were walking up a flight of stairs - breathing was hard enough. Or being the guy who didn't do grade 9 gym because it was co-ed and got butterflies in the stomach every time the grade 10 all-boys gym class interacted with the grade 10 all-girls gym class. Being too afraid to talk to the girl you like because you know you're nothing but an instant rejection waiting to happen.
Of course, those infractions may not be as simple as I first mentioned. There clearly is a range of embarrassing elements to hating your body. And I use the word hate very carefully here. It really was hate. I speculate that people who never hit rock-bottom about their body image may find it hard to understand such a silly concept. How could you hate your own body? Believe me, it's possible. I would tell myself: man, if I wasn't so fat I would be the most popular kid in the school.; Look at that guy over there! He sucks. If I had a body like his I would get every single girl in my grade lining up to be my girlfriend.; People only like me because they need a fat guy in the group. Every group of friends needs a punchline and I'm a self-bullying fat kid; You're going to die alone. No one could ever love you. How could somebody love you if you don't even love yourself?; Don't bother trying to achieve anything, fatass. You've failed so many times before at losing weight, what makes you think you can accomplish anything real in your life?; You'll be dead by 50.; I wonder what my toes look like? That last line was a joke but still serious. I could not look down in a natural position and see my toes (or my manhood) until halfway through grade 12.
These are all very real and just one person's experience of hating their body. And hate is one of those emotions that transcend what it means to be an emotion. Feeling joy or gloomy or bitter or mad is very non-threatening to your self-respect or the state of your mental stability. Hate consumes you. A lot of days, the only thing I could think about was how disgusting everybody probably thought I was. I would starve myself for a day and then pig-out the next. I had no idea what I was doing and all that I knew was that my shirt size was XXL and my pant size was 44 inches (and that was without needing a belt).
This was my breaking point.
This is when I started researching. Reading. Watching videos. Buying weird foods (tofu anyone?). I didn't know what the hell I was doing but all I knew was that something had to be done. I started working out twice a day. An hour before school and an hour and a half afterwards. My weightlifting technique was wrong for just about every lift and I had zero coordination necessary for a treadmill but goddammit I put all my effort into it. I still have nagging injuries from all the rookie mistakes I made by putting more effort into my exercising than I did brains. But I'm so much better now because of it. It wasn't the right way to do it by any means but it was something. I had tried and given up so many times before but not this time. This time was different. This time I had hate and I realized this hate.
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This is one of the few times I'll probably pause from an abstract conversation and be more practical, but if you're overweight like I was - the scale is your enemy. If you check that thing day to day or even week to week, you're guaranteeing your own heartbreak. After I decided to change my life, I waited 3 months before checking the scale and it was at this time that the number I saw in front of me was 35lbs less than what I started out with. Focusing on doing the right thing, eating the right thing, following a reasonable set of lifestyle changes will allow the results to come and the weight to drop.
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These are my experiences but as a human being,I am not just the sum of my individual parts. I am greater than this. Everybody is. This was a very difficult understanding for me to come to and it was only after I had a birth, rebirth, and death of my ego did I realize that my weight - just like any other part of me - was not something to identify myself by. However, this does not mean that I am immune to improvement. Nobody is. Conversations about fat-shaming and loving your body can only extend so far before the serious question must be asked: am I healthy? And this question is only partly directed towards your physical body. Some of the most able-bodied people I know suffer from afflictions that move beyond a muscular frame and an impressive exercise routine. Mental and spiritual health are just as important. Ignore any one of these 3 important parts of what you are and you find yourself sick and lacking. This is what training helped me realize. It was through exercising my body, reaching goals but still not seeing the results I wanted mentally and spiritually that I realized fitness can only go so far. But this conversation is better left for part 2 of this post.
I conclude this with the sentiment that I could not have achieved what I did without help. It was friends and family that supported me and my journey that are to thank for my accomplishment. I encourage everyone to take the first step in identifying what issue they have that might be affecting their health. But more-so, I encourage everyone to try and help other people find theirs. A little support and encouragement can go a very long way to inspire someone to fix whatever injury, be it bodily or other, may be harming their life.
Extending your hand and grabbing another may be someone's saving grace. Do not hesitate to help someone hanging on by only a thread. The man on the right in the picture above did just that for me and saved a life. You can too.
If you live on planet earth chances are you remember seeing the adrenaline junkie depicted above doing the incredible and jumping from space. You laughed, you cried, you cheered, you felt good about humanity for 10 minutes - marveling at what the human spirit is capable of when you set aside fear and embrace challenge. Of course, you liked it, you shared it, you tweeted about it, and like me you might have even set it as your profile picture on Facebook. Although I do not wish to turn this into a conversation about social media (that's better left for another day), I do wish to talk about how this jump was possible.
What's the first thing you notice in this picture after the surreal placement of a single man hovering above the Earth? Is it the glow of sapphire blue you see in the distance hugging the edge of the planet? Is it the somewhat emptiness and vastness of space that you know surrounds this man? Maybe, but not what I'm getting at.
I see a red bull. I see Red Bull. And it's slapped all over this man for a good reason.
The power of sponsorship is one you really don't understand until you think about it. Money talks in our society and unless someone is willing to fork over the cash to fund a project (like a skydive from outer space) then it's not going to happen. The moment you accept this is the moment you can start to really dream big.
I'm not here to argue about what is right and wrong or discuss why money should or shouldn't be the primary method by which things get done. This is not a dialogue about politics (directly at least). We are simply going forward with the understanding that money is the fuel for things getting done in the Western, Democratic, Capitalist world in 2013.
Science badass Neil DeGrasse Tyson made a clear distinction between art and science. He said that the difference is that in art: If you don't do it, no one else will. And in science: If you don't do it, someone else will. The example he gives for art is Beethoven's 9th symphony. Creation versus discovery. If he didn't create that music, no one before him or after him would have either. In science, it's different. Science is discovery and if North America doesn't discover something, then Europe will.
Life and living embodies both of these principles to some degree. I argue that being on earth is both creation AND discovery. Firstly, I'll be using Life to be meaning your own individual experiences. Secondly, I will be using Living to be meaning your interaction with other Lifes (that is to say, other people and things in society).
I have spoken to this idea before, but you are the catalyst for everything you experience in Life. If you don't project a positive, successful image of yourself for your future, then it simply won't happen. If you're stuck in the why me, oh god, why me mode, then chances are you will not be able to fish yourself out of that hole. If you have any person you idolize, be it a movie star, singer, writer, scientist, athlete, whatever, you can be absolutely sure that they have always believed that they would get to that point in their lives. This is exactly why if you have a dream, chase it. If you don't have a dream because you're too afraid to think big, then get one. There is nothing easy about this. I know that "getting a dream" isn't as simple as getting up and grabbing one. It takes serious soul searching. Really, it is the most important thing you'll ever do. If you've read my other blog posts, you'll already know that I'm not a big fan of blindly accepting goals and values people put on you to shape what you want to do. Sometimes what you actuallywant to do fits in with the standard and that's okay. Just don't lie to yourself. Because if you don't take charge of your own life, shape what matters most to you, dream big and persist after what you love, then no one will take charge for you and help you realize your dream. If you don't do it, no one else will. That's creation. Dreaming is creation. Dreaming is art. Your life is art.
Brilliant clip from Pursuit of Happyness (2006). Protect your dreams.
Here's where competition and that initial spiel about money and sponsors and space-jumping comes into play. Living. If having a dream and creating your Life is the why, then competition is the how. This is where your being experiences science. This is discovery. In the business world, an entrepreneur is fueled by a vision but will only last as long as his competitive edge allows him to. Competition is the reason everybody prefers the iPad over the Sony Tablet. Competition is the reason you can buy cheaper doesn't always mean better, or pricey doesn't always mean best. Competition is how you live or die in the real world.
A lot of people confuse competition with being evil or corrupt or greedy. A lot of people can and sometimes are right. But these are not synonyms for competition. It's what happens when people forget the why and focus solely on the how. And those types of people are exactly why there is such an irrational and blind hate towards rich and successful people. How many people reading this would hate to be rich or successful? None I'm sure. And how many people reading this would be convinced that they would be the outlier? If you won a million dollars today, I guarantee that you still wouldn't fit yourself in with those "greedy", "evil", "corrupt" other millionaires, would you? You wouldn't. And that's because you haven't been detached from your initial dream yet (assuming you have formed one since reading the last paragraph).
For simplicity sake, we'll use 2 examples of rich and successful people. One will be used to demonstrate what people think about when they think rich, successful, greedy, evil, corrupt billionaire and the other will be the prime example of someone who has not yet lost their why. First, you have a person obsessed with money. So much so to the point that their end goal isn't boats, mansions, jewelry, fame, or any other luxury - it's money. That's their motivation and their passion and they're willing to do anything to obtain it. This type of person is most competitive but least fulfilled. They have no why, only how. And this is the type of person that the internet labels the "1%" and are evil and corrupt and whatever. We hate them because we know we wouldn't be as corrupt if we had their resources - or at least we think so. This is fine and dandy and you can believe this as much as you want if it helps you reject the idea of competition. If you feel that you don't want to accept current cultural hows then by all means hold on to the fantasy that success and evil are necessarily paired together. Or, you could look at example 2.
This adorable nerd.
Bill Gates is everything any person who wants to be successful should hope to emulate. This guy had a dream and he protected it. He followed it and did everything necessary to realize it. He took his why, mastered the how, and achieved the what. Before I explain the what, I'll talk more about the 4-eyed bowl-cut for a minute. That melvin above is probably the most recognized billionaire on the planet. It doesn't matter who you say "Bill Gates" to, they know exactly who you're talking about. The man made computers part of the culture. I'd even go as far to say that the man is the father of our current culture. You can throw a rock anywhere in North America in any direction and be damn sure it lands within 30 feet of a computer. What did this man do with his billions? It's one Google search away, but his philanthropy is really his trademark that you should takeaway from his riches and success. For example, he's got this list of billionaire buddies that he made sign a document saying that a large portion of their wealth gets donated to less fortunate peoples as soon as they die. The man has donated over $30 billion (thats billion with a BIG B) to charity and has his own set up charity which would take an entire novel-length of talk about (so here's a link to the wikipedia page instead http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_%26_Melinda_Gates_Foundation).
Point is, Bill Gates has evolved his why. That's the cool thing about your dream. It doesn't have to be an achievement. In fact, his how helped him discover what his why actually was all this time - helping people. If it was to make computers, his why was done before he made a single penny. If his why was being rich, he would have stopped working once he made a million. His science helped him discover the true creation within him and that's helping people. Simple enough, right? Helping people should be the route of everyone's why. Bill Gates found purpose in his Life and it stemmed directly from his why. Yours doesn't have to be on the global scale like Bill Gates, but it has to positively affect the people you love. This is that what I talked about earlier. The what is finding purpose in your time on earth.
And the what can only be achieved with equal focus on the why and the how. Equal effort put into art and science. Equal passion for Life and for Living.
To say everything I have to say about this conversation would take up much more space than a blog post should, but above is a brief of what needs to be said about competition and why you should accept the challenge of competing with the world. It may be your only chance to help it.
And what of those who try and fail? Well, to all you losers out there I give you a big thank you. I give you a hug and a kiss. I envy you for you have lived a life far more significant and important than many people will. You have discovered your why, embraced the how and fell victim to whatever obstacle came your way. But it is because of you that people who succeed in their what truly appreciate and understand what they have accomplished. And through them, you find meaning and significance. You have found purpose. Your why is truly revealed. Your failure has bred victory and you are just as important in someone else's achievement as they are. Without you, we all fail. Without someone coming in second place, there is no first place. Without you, there is no reason to try. And when the people in first place get old and reflect on their "accomplishments" and all the money they saw and all the prizes they won, they'll realize that their dream wasn't the finish-line. Their dream was the race.
The second worst thing you can do to yourself is be identified by one thing that isn't you.
The worst thing you can do to yourself is be identified by one person who isn't you.
I love movies. You love movies. Everyone loves movies.
It's almost impossible to track down someone uninterested by movies.
A great thing about movies is that there is so much diversity and volume. You can watch just about anything you can think about watching. Movies are powerful too. They shape the way people think, act, dream, and unfortunately fail expectations. And while it is often easy to suspend our disbelief when it comes to light-sabers or a planet overrun by apes, it's much harder to when the characters seem so real and the settings feel so optimal.
Many times I have fallen victim to falling in love with movie depictions of real life. At times, it was pretty bad in high school. It still happens sometimes, although, to a much lesser degree. Unfortunately, I see the same kind of missed expectations in a lot of people. I mean a LOT of people. The worst by-far is the way movies paint love and relationship dynamics. This is often the most hurtful. Especially to the person fantasizing.
There are literally thousands of movies that follow the same kind of formula:
1. Boy sees girl. 2. Girl unaware of boy's existence. 3. Boy develops crush. 4. Boy and girl interact, boy falls in love. 5. ?????? 6. Girl loves boy. 7. Life is perfect. There are no problems ever and true love exists between these two because they are soulmates.
A very sexy idea.
The formula works and people eat it up. And although many of us do realize it's just a movie, the more we see this kinda stuff the more you get conditioned into believe certain aspects of the fiction.
For one, we place the achievement of our own happiness based on the actions of others. In our above formula, the entire time leading up to the guy getting the girl he is completely miserable and has an impossible time finding joy in anything if she's not in the picture. I've been there. Hell, I'm there sometimes even still. And although we all have some strange biological desire to be with someone else, the addition of certain social pressures make this an unholy approach to life.
It's not even exclusive to romantic relationships. You don't have to be a hopeless romantic to place your happiness in the hands of others. I know people (myself included) who are absolutely miserable if they're not either: hanging out with someone, texting someone, checking their Facebook, scrolling their Twitter feed, etc. It's unhealthy. For some reason, spending 10 minutes alone with yourself has become an impossible task (I type this as I just put down my phone from checking my instagram feed).
As such, we're producing a culture that doesn't care about themselves individually. Not to be confused about what you look like - which is a function of: what will people think of me? How can people like me?
Perhaps I use the word happiness too flexibly, but it's the only word that comes to mind. Have you noticed that the word itself has become watered down? Are you ever really happy in your life? To me, the word means that overall, on a long enough time scale, you are not only pleased with what, who, and why you are, but to the point where nothing and no one can knock you off your throne. Frankly, we all live on too short of a time-scale to actually experience happiness.
Think about what you do in a day? You do and think about millions of things and the amount of time you put in doing one single thing is so negligible that you can almost barely say it's happened at all. Our attention spans have reduced to not being able to engage in something for more than 5 minutes. We're constantly giving ourselves breaks - FROM EVERYTHING.
Is this what it's come to?
I know I'm making generalizations and perhaps it doesn't really apply to you but I've seen it. I live it. I have been in a position where my entire days goes on hold until I get a text back from a certain special someone. I have been in a place where because I forgot to bring my phone, I felt alone and scared although I am completely surrounded by people. It's funny. Our generation is often critiqued as being too individualized. We can see it in the number of people with headphones on walking down the street. Or how many people we see with a cellphone in front of their face just browsing the internet all day - even in groups of friends. I would argue differently. It's not really an individualization. It's a detachment from the self. We can't stand to be alone. This is furthered by how sick to our stomachs we can make ourselves feel by over-thinking something. And guess what? The only time you over-think is when you're by yourself. Something we don't practice doing enough.
It's like with any new venture, activity, job, class, etc. The more time you spend doing it, the more comfortable you get. The less time you spend doing it, the more dreadful your experience is gonna be when you do decide to engage. Public speaking is like this. I don't care who you are, unless you actively practice speaking in public to some degree, you fucking hate it. It makes you sick to your stomach. The same kind of sick to your stomach you get when you don't practice thinking. When you don't practice being with yourself.
I leave you with a closing sentiment. I think adding people to your life is the best way to increase just how rich and deep your experience on earth is. The true beauty of life comes from the embracing of it as your own. Being able to control your own outcomes and play the game by your own set of rules is truly the most rewarding of lifestyles. Take a minute to think about where you place your ability to be happy:
If you've never seen Kubrick's 1968 masterpiece 2001: A Spacey Odyssey, I advise you to either accept the fact that I'm going to be referencing a spoiling element of it, or just go watch it first then come back. It's over 40 years old. It's okay, I only saw it for the first time a few days ago - no need to feel embarrassed.
The entire film is loosely centered around significant events that inspire evolution of our species. For example, the first scene of the movie depicts an ape-like creature picking up an animal bone and using it as a weapon - the first instance of a species using intelligence to overcome an obstacle. The very next scene is a panoramic view of space with satellites orbiting the earth. Crazy to think that we evolved from hitting things with blunt objects to fend off predators to being able to shoot giant metal instruments into uninhabitable parts of the galaxy and explore uncharted places of the universe. We must keep this shift in intelligence in mind.
The last sequence in the film follows an astronaut's final moments before transcending into the next stage in human evolution. He ages. He gets old. He dies. He is born again (see attached video at bottom for the scene in particular). But when he is born again and transcends to the next step of evolution, he does not have the same degree of physical change we associate with the evolution from our early ancestral ape relatives. He is still a human baby. No extra arms or enlarged brain or rock-hard skin. He's the same tender-bodied babe that all of us were born as. So what gives? What could it possibly mean to show a regular baby as the representation of the next step in human evolution?
The infamous baby is referred to as the "Star Child". He is the perfect representation of the next step of human evolution. The baby's body is weak. However, a baby is also a symbol of pure, idealistic intentions. The innocence and purity a human baby symbolizes is universal. It is soft and tender and entirely dependent on the beings around it to take care of it. So much so to the point where those responsible for taking care of the child remove their own goals and desires in order to accommodate the well-being of the baby. You might say to yourself that this seems like a regression. How is being more dependent on your environment a step-forward from where we are today?
A human baby surpasses the need for strong body composition. That's the meaning behind the symbol there. It itself does not need to care for its body because forces of nature do so already. This allows for the baby to cater to more important matters: learning. Learning is one thing that we are all hard-wired to do right from birth. We truly are born sponge-like. Many, if not all of us, lose this sponge-like ability to learn as we age because of the conditioning we receive from those in charge of tending to us. We are conditioned to gravitate towards certain kinds of learning or fields of study based on subjective environments. For example, instead of being taught the nature of feces, hygiene, and the practical but also theoretical reason behind where we poop, we are first taught that pooping must be done on the toilet. We are taught this the same way you teach a dog to poop outside. You force them to do it enough times and reward them for a job well-done. The dog gets the treat and the toddler gets affection. It is not until years later that we learn ourselves after questioning the ethics behind pooping on the toilet (while probably indeed in the middle of the act of pooping on the toilet) the reasons we designate a spot for fecal extermination. This is a crude example but it has serious implications.
For one, this introduces the top-down, authoritative, command relationship we develop with our "superiors". We are experienced to obey first and ask questions later. Worse yet, it's reassured as being done in "our best interest". This is a very troublesome dynamic and what I believe to be the underlying obstacle needed to be conquered to further our evolution.
It's unnatural. We are forced to suppress feelings, thoughts, and ideas at the will of our commanding body. Some of us conquer this early enough in our lives and continue to be outspoken leaders of being comfortable with who you are and what you feel. Many of us do not. We turn to different means of expression like music, film, sports, weightlifting, martial arts, books, or just art in general, as a means of "letting it all out". This "all out" I'm talking about is angst. We become so comfortable with being uncomfortable that we almost feel guilty when we're not suppressing some kind of angst. Think of how taboo it is to openly speak about sex in our society. People are almost forced to feel shame when they talk about one of the most natural and important part of being alive: sex. Sexual energy is so ignored and so suppressed by such a large number of people that I'm sure it lends itself to some kind of pattern of psychological, physiological, and biological disease. How could it not? Sex is just one example of the conditions and suppression we're exposed to. It's all part of a grander scheme of principles.
We're taught what to like. We're applauded for accepting traditional values like going to a fancy school, owning a sweet car, achieving a great body, and enjoying meaningless entertainment (MTV anyone?). It's counter intuitive. Often, the most intuitive part of these conditions is rejecting them. It feels really good to tell off your parents. They love you and you should never do it, but you do it because it's an outlet for all the angst you feel and don't know how to qualify. Siblings can be an especially prone area of angst release. Here's this person who has been exposed to the exact same set of conditions as you and more than likely has similar angst pent up inside them and the tiniest of disagreements can often be a door to a no-holds-barred verbal lashing of yelling and cursing and things you wish you didn't do or say. It's unhealthy but often the only way we can release our angst. The baby in our evolution example is free from angst. Why? Because it has not yet had a chance to be suppressed. A baby poops when it wants to poop. A baby cries when it wants to cry and sleeps when it wants to sleep. Of course, this is just analogous. It means that a baby is free to do what feels right without punishment. Should this not be how we all proceed?
Evolution is not just biological, it is also societal.
It's almost impossible to choose option C when you're only aware of (or given) options A and B. If option A is go to school, get a job, get a wife, support a family, get a mortgage, make a lot of money, retire at 65 and feel like you lived a life you were supposed to with pockets of genuine happiness but not the one you wanted to, and Option B is don't go to school, get a girl pregnant, work in a factory, make enough money to scrape by, get divorced, go on welfare but live a life where you escape reality by abusing drugs or playing video games and still experience pockets of genuine happiness, which sounds more appealing? Laid out like that, they almost seem identical. Very patterned and very expected. This is generally the assumptions we're told to believe about life. Unfortunately, I do not know alternatives to these (albeit extreme cases) life circumstances because I've never had the chance to dwell on the potential for an option C. That's where this baby analogy becomes relevant again.
The model of going to school, getting a job, etc., works very well for a society that is built on material wealth, financial stability, and institutional-based relationships. We live in a world where we can put a couple pieces of metal together, crunch a few numbers, and send a fleet of humans to the edge of the galaxy in a space-boat. A world where every piece of information ever discovered is literally at your fingertips in a small $50 a month piece of equipment that can also take pictures, communicate with anyone anywhere in the world, and store thousands upon thousands of files on. The point is, our intelligence and ability keeps increasing but our structures remain the same. We've become so good at everything and people are so able to expose themselves to a host of different interests and experiences that choosing one is almost cruel. It makes sense for when people dedicated themselves to an industry for not only practical reasons, but because it was one of the few exposures they had. A life vocation was once seen as passionate dedication to one discipline, whereas now it's a dispassionate sacrifice to choose one. Like babies, we are receptive beings. We are interested in many fields of study and discipline. I myself love science, art, fitness, film, teaching, and philosophy - and this is just a quick list of things absent a specific sub-list of other things I enjoy within those fields. Is it not cruel to tell myself to pick just one as a vocation? Just one of the things I enjoy to be used as a tool to gain money and financial stability so I can maintain a preconceived notion of what living a meaningful life is? Sure, it made sense to our parents' parents, or even our parents. But not for us. Not this generation. We have surpassed convention.
Our evolution, therefore, is no longer one of physical change or even mental change. I am not saying we are at the apex of the human physique or even the human brain capacity. I simply do not know about those apexes. What I do know is that our evolution can and should come from a societal progression. Evolution is all about survival through adaptations. We are at the stage in our species where we are not only the most dominant species on Earth, but perhaps also the weakest. We are unable to face the harsh realities and we are too stubborn to simply die. A strong animal will use every tool in its arsenal to dig itself out of a hole it finds itself in. And if its tools do not work, it dies. That is strength in finding the courage to exhaust all resources to survive and progress forward. We do not have this courage. We are not even regressing - we are not courageous enough to die. What we do now is merely exist. We accept the environment for what it is and use outdated techniques to live the same way our older generations did, even though we have new tools. A horse stuck in the mud will toss and turn and exert every shred of energy in its being to try and get free. As a humans, we are stuck in angst and do not bother to exert the energy needed to relieve ourselves. Indeed, we are comfortable with being stuck in the mud. We have become comfortable with being uncomfortable.
The Star Child gazing at the earth,
ready to embrace the wonders of the planet without inhibitions or angst.
Our societal progression means allowing people to grow up and feel things as it comes to them. Of course we should protect children and keep them safe from harm, but we should not condition them to fear their own emotions or energies. It's creating neurosis. A child, or any person for that matter, should never feel ashamed to talk about sex. A person should never feel like a disappointment for not wanting to go to school. A person should never feel successful just because they acquired a lot of money. It's all silly, archaic dynamics. What we should value in a day and age like this is our ability to be close to people, even when they are so far away. We have ways to express ourselves in a seemingly infinite amount of ways, but almost have to do so in secrecy. The Internet is the biggest proponent and antagonist of this problem. It gives people a way to express their deepest feelings and emotions to the world - a way to release their angst - but in secrecy. It's too anonymous. It becomes too far removed from who you are. At best, it becomes routine as a means of therapy, but that itself is only a baby step. It is essential to take this further and create a society where we are free to think, act, feel, express, love, hate, experience, all at our own discretion and comfortably. The ability to find communities within our society that allows for healthy conversation about dreams and goals and ambitions without fear of punishment.
We all need to return to our baby states. Relying on the environment around us to nurture our biological and physiological needs, so we can develop our psychological ones. Our evolution will come from an acceptance of not what we are are as society, but who we are. We need to hunger to better not only our individual selves, but the human species as a whole. We're not doing this right now. And we're not approaching this idea the right way either. Babies have it right. Shut down your inhibitions and poop when you wanna poop and eat when you need to eat. It is our duty to service ourselves and to enrich all those things that interest us and make us happy.
Right now, the only baby-like characteristic we embody is not being responsible for our actions. And sometimes pooping ourselves when we eat too much and regretfully trust a fart (metaphorically).
