Dot in the Sky (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dotinthesky) wrote2003-09-16 01:42 pm
dotinthesky) wrote2003-09-16 01:42 pm
just something I've noticed
I had to go to Camden Town this morning, to drop more handouts at the printer. It's beautiful outside but I had to go underground and take the Tube.
The seats were full so I had to stand. I stood near a woman holding a little girl. The woman said to another woman, in an american accent, "mom, we get off the next stop." The train stopped, they stood up and left. They were huge.
Now, there's something I've been noticing lately which I find quite strange: everytime I see a morbidly obese person, they always turn out to be American. There are hundreds of thousands of Americans visiting London, and they come in all shapes and sizes. But, but, but... I've never seen a morbidly obese person who was not American.
You might be wondering why I find it strange. If someone is fat, who cares except that person? It's nobody's business. I know that, and I agree with that. But, just out of curiosity, I'm interested in this phenomenon (and it is a phenomenon - there are even books about it) because it does represent, maybe symbolically, the dark side of America's culture: on one hand, excess, indulgence, lack of control; on the other hand, hopelessness, the individual as a freak show, sadness. In one way or another, those are feelings and notions which I attach to America nowadays. Could it be that unhealthy lifestyles and a drift away from a more integrated life with nature is the result of this - the ultimate result of industrialization? Is it an example of what can happen to capitalist cultures that have strayed too far away from a point where care for the individual is a priority? Or is it just an example of a society where creature comforts are more valued than simple things like exercise and healthy eating?
I've been to a few cities in America (Athens Georgia, New York City, various parts of Florida, Buffalo New York, Hampstead Massachussets) and I know they are all very distinct from each other... still, some cultural similarities can be drawn which hold the American people together and make them stand out from the rest of the world. Morbid obesity just might be one of the most glaring ones , something that is becoming more noticeable to the rest of the world.
The seats were full so I had to stand. I stood near a woman holding a little girl. The woman said to another woman, in an american accent, "mom, we get off the next stop." The train stopped, they stood up and left. They were huge.
Now, there's something I've been noticing lately which I find quite strange: everytime I see a morbidly obese person, they always turn out to be American. There are hundreds of thousands of Americans visiting London, and they come in all shapes and sizes. But, but, but... I've never seen a morbidly obese person who was not American.
You might be wondering why I find it strange. If someone is fat, who cares except that person? It's nobody's business. I know that, and I agree with that. But, just out of curiosity, I'm interested in this phenomenon (and it is a phenomenon - there are even books about it) because it does represent, maybe symbolically, the dark side of America's culture: on one hand, excess, indulgence, lack of control; on the other hand, hopelessness, the individual as a freak show, sadness. In one way or another, those are feelings and notions which I attach to America nowadays. Could it be that unhealthy lifestyles and a drift away from a more integrated life with nature is the result of this - the ultimate result of industrialization? Is it an example of what can happen to capitalist cultures that have strayed too far away from a point where care for the individual is a priority? Or is it just an example of a society where creature comforts are more valued than simple things like exercise and healthy eating?
I've been to a few cities in America (Athens Georgia, New York City, various parts of Florida, Buffalo New York, Hampstead Massachussets) and I know they are all very distinct from each other... still, some cultural similarities can be drawn which hold the American people together and make them stand out from the rest of the world. Morbid obesity just might be one of the most glaring ones , something that is becoming more noticeable to the rest of the world.
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The burden of proof, by the way, is on those advocating free, rational will - philosophers and theory-minded psychologists have run themselves ragged trying to defend this notion in the light of overwhelming proof to the contrary.
(Even your critical ability has been determined to some degree: I'm sure you have innate intellectual capacities; beyond that, my guess is that you have in some way had a personal history involving some kind of disenfranchisement or marginality - further strengthening your identification with the role of critic, and of survivor; the second stab I'm making is that you're university-educated, also a question of class culture (if not economics). If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure there's a kernel of truth here... and lest you accuse me of an ad hominem argument, my response is that the man is the argument - that your psychology - and your history, and your class- informs your argument, and really, anyone's argument.)
What about your sense of empathy for those victimized by these forces? Nobody is lazy - people naturally seek an optimal level of stimulation, occupation. But after being beaten down by various cultures - family, school, work, suburbs, and more ideological cultures/structures - people do in fact become helpless.
(Do a search on this phenomenon, "learned helplessness". You know the story of the dog that got zapped when he went near an electric fence? [And it wasn't every time, either; it was enough times, statistically, for him to expect being zapped...] The fence got moved, but he learned never to go past the line....
People forget how to see, they lose a sense of the horizon of possibilities; they get bogged down in obligations they signed up for before they knew any different. They get tired.
People desire health, vitality, freedom, joy. They just don't *know* how to enact these principles.
If you have some plan (of pedagogy, policy, activism) in mind for the demystification of the fat, tired, overworked, zombified masses, I would genuinely love to hear it.
If I sound angry, I am - nothing gets my goat more than the self-righteous judgment of a "survivor".
Wow wow wow
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Re: on gmos
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I agree with your statement: "The primary health concern of society should be obesity because of the predominance of heart disease in modern society"... and also that people need to get exercise. But, as for food being cheap, it's not true for the 3rd world! I come from Brasil, and my family lives in a fairly small countryside city (500,000). The majority of the population is working class - they work long hours, long shifts, they don't have the time to eat healthyly everyday. When it comes to fatty rich food, they are a quick and cheap alternative that people in Brasil find for their meals. I take walks through my city and I see so many unhealthy looking people, with awful skin, and in many ways they are becoming like the U.S. There's also the question of people having lost the tradition of cooking together, of passing down to younger generations the recipes for good dishes. If you ask any teenager what they like eating (irrespective of their class) they'll tell you that it's junk food.
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My mom's family comes from this small village (not the city I mentioned earlied), very agrarian. They eat everything fried in pig's fat, which is very bad! But before, they used to climb a mountain in the morning, taking the cows, etc, and climb it down in the evening... they were like stick figures. Now, because the culture of the area is changing, they don't execise anymore but still eat everything in pig's fat. Result: everyone dropping dead from heart attacks in their early 50s.
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do you exercise or practice any sport?
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pull your trousers down and bend over.
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I sure will
WACK
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and jimbo jimbo jimbo
*sticks tongue out*