- vo·li·tion/vəˈliSHən/Noun
The faculty or power of using one's will. Synonymswill - wish - desire - pleasure
- lan·guish/ˈlaNGgwiSH/Verb
- (of a person or other living thing) Lose or lack vitality; grow weak.
- Fail to make progress or be successful.
Synonymspine - fade - wither - droop - flag
When you put an animal in zoo, give it a steady stream of food without the necessity of exercise, three things happen:
1. It goes nuts.
2. It stops reproducing.
3. It gets fat.
In a way, it might be nature’s way of making sure that animal doesn’t live on. Well, we’re in the zoo and since there aren’t any bars, we just don’t know it. But we do know all three problems are starting to plague us. Just sit in an airport for a few hours and “people watch” to see just how shallow the gene pool is actually getting.
The above quote is from this article which is worth the read, in my opinion. It quickly strays from the previous lament and instead goes on about barefoot training and how it can reduce injury.
The point remains intact. As we have modernized collectively (speaking primarily of industrialized societies) we have abandoned the need to adapt to our environment. Darwin's theory is turned on its head in the face of recent breakthroughs in science and medicine.
Our present culture is at once indicative of the capacity of our big brains while also showing how these breakthroughs can give rise to a self-imposed blight. A degradation of the median person, or as it has been coined before, a de-evolution of man unfolds before us. Although I have given examples of our physical decline, it can be observed anecdotally or through evidence that intelligence, as well, is in decline. Although unfortunate, it may not be all that surprising. Consider the poorer diet and more sedentary nature of modern Western culture. Further, it's not only that we are sedentary, but a large portion of Americans don't spend their sedentary time wisely. It isn't as if they are reading a thought-provoking book or writing. Instead most Americans are watching television which is typically not educational.
The surreptitious beauty of the movie Idiocracy was its comedic foreshadowing of the future. Suffice to say, mankind hopefully won't turn out exactly as depicted in Idiocracy, but after watching that movie I could only shake my head knowing it was at least marginally indicative of the future.
There is always hope and forever there will be hope for us. We're not irretrievably enfeebled by our own devices (although I struggle to convince myself of this at times) and it is an indication of our superb nature as human beings that the first thing to collectively cripple us would be the conditions of our own making. So it stands that we must answer to us.
Accountability on an individual basis accumulates into a communal effort which resonates as a regional effort and so on. If the impetus shifts from instant gratification and making things easier to, say, finding reward in worthwhile efforts with our physical and mental endeavors, we may all find ourselves in a better place after all.
Further, this could simply be part of the collective ebb and flow or our species. We wax and we wane. So if we are indeed waning presently, perhaps better times are ahead with regard to our physical and mental prowess. Yet I don't want you to feel at ease with how I phrased it, because this eventual rise from the doldrums isn't going to occur on its own. It will require continual effort, and even then it should be understood that you are doing this for the process of doing it and not because of the endgame it entails. If you seek to do something only to reach its end, you won't make it to that end, because the reward is a fleeting feeling. It is the ever-present acknowledge of well-being and bettering oneself that will keep you aloft in your pursuits.
All I know for sure is that I don't want this trend toward a future maligned by obesity and ignorance to send us into oblivion. This isn't the way I want us all to go out, not at all. It is a very anticlimactic end to what has so far been an interesting human journey so far. Let our end involve a super-meteor, or defending all that we love from aliens, zombies, or dinosaurs. But not from our own sloth and listless preoccupation with reality television. Please not that.
If we eat and sit ourselves into oblivion, it will be a damn shame. We are big-brained, innately sinewy creatures. We are capable of running fast, lifting heavy, and splitting the atom. We can do all this and more. Every day we are hearing news of yet another barrier being broken down, and if that isn't worth living for, I don't know what is. What I do know, dear reader, is that our current culture isn't living.
