The Truth about Fitness
by Wentworth Sutton, assistant vice-principal, Mitchell Hepburn Collegiate Institute, Don Mills, and president emeritus, Semiologico-Hermeneutic Institute of Toronto
This is the age of fitness.
Standards of fitness have skyrocketed over the past 30 years. So-called health clubs are everywhere. People actually know what their blood pressure and pulse rates are.
On top of that many of us are obsessed with nutrition. So-called healthy eating has become almost beyond criticism.
And of course anyone who smokes is evil.
Conventionally people see these developments as evidence of an increased and desirable concern for health. As usual, conventional wisdom is wrong.
First of all, much of the interest in fitness and nutrition is clearly narcissistic. It's one thing to exercise to be fit; it's another to exercise to give your muscles better definition, which is what many people are doing these days.
Secondly, "healthy" eating often results in phenomena like anorexia nervosa. Yes, unhealthy eating results in heart attacks, but then no one calls that healthy eating. Duh.
Thirdly, the effects of physical fitness and "good" nutrition are routinely overestimated, and the deleterious effects of overexercise and nutritional extremism are routinely ignored.
Fourthly, if people were truly concerned about health they'd be doing something about the toxins in the air they breathe rather than going down to the health club four nights a week to walk on the treadmill. Or when, as happened not so long ago in Ontario, a report is released providing details of how government policy resulted in contamination of the water supply, they'd do something more than just shrug it off, which is what Ontarians did.
No, the fitness/nutrition craze is of course really a craze for something else. It is a craze for something which is essential to modern life, a craze for something which we must learn to master if we are to succeed in modern society.
In reality, the fitness craze is a craze for boredom. Now that really is obvious. What could be more boring than the routines (sic) people go through at the "health" club? Convicts used to be forced to walk on treadmills as punishment! Now treadmills are an important component of the modern lifestyle.
"Healthy" eating isn't exactly a riot, either. Now, I like tofu – that is, I like tofu when it's called bean curd and its preparation for the table involves frying it. A bowl of spicy bean curd is one of those small pleasures which makes life worth living. That ain't what you get with healthy eating, however. The advocates of "healthy" eating promise that it will make our life longer, not that it will make it more enjoyable.
Why are we so keen on being bored? For the obvious reason that life has become so boring that we have to work on our ability to tolerate it. The conservative values of security and husbanding one's wealth which have been so skilfully promoted over the last twenty years or so discourage people from doing anything interesting. Go on a trip? No, better to put the money into a retirement account. Better to put it into a rental property. Better to put it into mutual funds (oh, sorry – that advice is under review).
People have become desperate to keep their jobs. Since more and more of us are working in huge corporations, what better way to develop the servile attitude so helpful in the modern corporation than by going down to the health club and joining in a group that's bossed around by some loudmouth in a position of authority?
Exercise groups remind me, in fact, of the Nuremberg rallies, which were celebrations of corporatism. The next time you see Triumph des Willens, just see if you don't expect the assembled Nazi groups to break out any second into a bouncy aerobic routine led by A. Hitler up there on the podium.
Modern life, of course, is becoming a) ruled by corporations, and b) one huge corporation. In the United States lobbyists join Congressmen in drafting laws. In Canada, the long tradition of budget secrecy has been abandoned so that investors can be spared the jitters.
The modern democratic societies are also moving towards corporatism. The persistent rhetoric about so-called communities is a sign of that. Public debate is seen not as an exchange of views between citizens but rather as one between communities.
In Canada, of course, we have probably gone farther in creating the modern corporatist state than other countries. We, with the approval of our constitution, look on society as a collection of groups rather than of individuals. The idea seems to be to create a society in which one's rights are derived from the groups to which one belongs rather than to one's status as an equal citizen of a democratic society.
In practice what this means is a lot of boredom. Debate between communities is carried on by so-called community leaders, often self-appointed, with the duty of the followers being to assemble in large numbers as required (in Montreal in 1995, for example, with flags).
No, there's not a lot of scope for individual action in modern, now, à gogo society. Life is boring. We want it to be boring. Boredom, we have been taught, is preferable to the uncertainty that comes with freedom and individual initiative. We have a better chance of tolerating boredom if we work at being bored. Repetitive exercise and bland diet are two important ways of helping you tolerate your boring life.
The other important way of coping with the boredom of life is of course pharmaceutical. As our consumption of alcohol and tobacco goes down, our consumption of antidepressants goes up. And who produces antidepressants? Why, big corporations! And what possible interest in increasing the threshold of boredom could they have?
But enough of this whining! Get up off that chair, turn off the computer, and get down to the health club for a spirited session of tedious, mindnumbing boredom!! It's good, and good for business!
The Truth about Fitness © John FitzGerald, 2002
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