The Obsession With Fatty!

 

As readers here know, I like to engage in other places with a foreign view from time to time.  The Australian “Conversation” is a favorite of mine, mostly because it opens up a whole new group of leftists which I can irk!  But, for the last several months, I’ve been getting more and more updates about something I don’t care about, even in this country.  I recognize it as a problem, but it is a symptom not a cause.  No one will recognize this until they understand certain things.  And I’ll be long gone before this happens. 

What I’m talking about is obesity.  I thought the U.S. was bad about this obsession!  My goodness, if the Conversation is indicative of our Aussie friends they’re downright maniacal!  At least today, they didn’t use the pejorative “fatty” when describing obese people.  It isn’t that I’m for political correctness or anything of that nature, I just think it’s a bit over the top to headline with that when it’s such a progressive publication. 

At any rate, the Carbon Tax and newspaper issue got 4th and 5th billing at the Conversation today. 

It’s a slow day, so I’ll share my insights with the people who frequent.  My countrymen, Aussies, Canucks, Germans, Brits, ……. all who are concerned and/or puzzled. 

Now I assume most people are like me.  I really don’t care if someone is obese.  I figure that’s their call.  For a few, it isn’t their call, it’s their lot.  But, for the most part, they need to push themselves away from the table and take a walk!  Don’t get me wrong, I never was a Johnny Atlas, but my metabolism keeps me okay, even though I do absolutely nothing to stay within my weight norm, I just do.  I used to run distance, I haven’t run a block in years.  But, others don’t have this.  They actually have to work at staying within their proper weight!

Oh sure, we see some very thin and fit people.  If it isn’t drugs, then they’re slaving their life away just trying to maintain their fitness.  They go to work, as soon as they get off, they hit the gym, done with the workout, the go jogging.  Done with that, they go home, do the necessary things, such as shower, eat, laundry, etc…. and that’s the day.  Wake up and do it again.  I’m here to tell you, screw that!!  That’s not living, that’s existing.  And, it’s existing to keep a vain appearance.  Now, don’t get me wrong.  I’m not saying don’t exercise and don’t eat right, but all things in moderation.  (Just wish I could take my own advice    ) 

But, why is this happening?  In a word, innovation.  Or, you can call it efficiency.  I shouldn’t have to explain this concept.  We all know this is true.  For brevity’s sake, I’ll forgo all of the things we don’t do any longer and is done for us…….. at work and at home.  But, there’s something else, as well.  And, it’s something I think we need to understand, not just for our physical health, but also our economic health.

Work!  Now, I don’t work any more.  I have a job.  It isn’t work, not physically, anyway.  There was a time when we all worked for a living.  Most of us don’t, today.   Yes, automation and technology has come a long way, but, so too has specialization.  (That’s not my job.)  Today, in most instances, we see people who perform one function.  Be it sitting on a backhoe, or at a desk, they’re performing a specialized function.  Even in foundries we see this. 

I’ve occasionally wrote about my experience in construction, and as a factory worker.  I thoroughly enjoyed the work at both!  It wasn’t because I was the guy who hammered the nail.  It wasn’t’ because I was the guy who moved the steel.  It wasn’t because I was the guy who cut the wood, or pressed the part, or checked for quality, or removed the rivets or riveted.   It was because I was the guy who could and did do all of that and more!  During that period of my life, I never ran, I never worked out, I didn’t watch what I ate.   I never had to.  I was fit as a fiddle, and productive.  I’d go home, drink as much beer as I could, eat as much meat as I could find, and still have time for a social life.  But, this isn’t because I was exceptional.  This is simply what was done. 

We’re fat because we haven’t found new productive ways to use our God given tools.  Our heads and our bodies.  It is a never ending race which we must stay in front.  From the times of drawing water from the river and toting it home, to digging a well near the home, efficiency is always coming.  John Henry, lost to the powered hammer, but there were new ways to utilize our given gifts.  Again, don’t get me wrong.  I’m not advocating a Luddite lifestyle.  Embrace innovation and automation!  It is key to increasing productivity.  But, that isn’t where mankind stops.  We’re not done!  The digits and limbs and back are too functional to lay idling away.  We simply need to find a use for them.  Then we won’t be so fat anymore.  The vigorous and animating occupation with productivity is something which needs to be extolled!  It shouldn’t be considered as something beneath us, or only for lessor individuals or backwards.  We simply need to find things we can do better than any machination conceived.  And, when that machination is conceived, we find something else.  There are always new things to touch, new things to move, new things to do. 

About these ads