Making the Weak, Strong

The problem with making the competitive model the basis for individual lifelong (health) improvement, is that its purpose is not to make the weak, strong, but to simply eliminate the weak from further participation -- which is disastrous as a public health program.  So there is no mystery why the prevalence of obese and inactive individuals living substandard lives is so alarming.  That is the whole purpose of those competitive activities -- to derive and identify the one winner, and not to help the billions of others by confusing the issue, with their continued participation.  Then the judges have to "find the needle in the haystack," rather than see only "the last man standing."

And while that can be an amusing thing to do, it's not real helpful when the purpose becomes keeping as many people "in the game" as possible, so that they all don't end up warehoused waiting to die from an early age -- as many view their lives now, beginning even during their 20s -- before they have even hit their prime and peak.

The reason we have "education," is to make the ignorant, informed and educated about things that should matter, and not just to eliminate them, so that we teach only the smart, and then proclaim we are the greatest teachers in the world, and know what we are doing -- because the only "student" remaining, knows more than all the rest.  Then the danger and threat to society becomes what happens to the overwhelming rest -- and not that there is just one champion who will live life for all the rest -- as the pharaohs, emperors and kings of a much more primitive time.

Hopefully, we no longer condition people for living in such a world, when only one winner can live the fullest life -- but that possibility, exists for everyone in that society.  Then truly, we can see how far we have come as a civilization -- in that everyman now, can live as well as only kings could live in the past, with literally virtual access to everything -- limited only by their ability to find the needle in the haystack of information, marketing and propaganda.

Thus the real function of education, is to ask first, why is one learning what is being taught, and not simply because that is what everyone is being taught -- with never a question, "Why?"  In this way, the first can often be last -- in learning all that can be useless, counterproductive and destructive, because they are too willing and eager, to jump the mark for a quick start and advantage -- thinking it is just enough to be at the front of the pack, before asking where it is going -- as it often is, to their own destruction.

That is the competitive way, and not asking the right question, of what makes the weak, strong?  You can never come to the right answer, by not asking the right question -- but when one asks the right question, the answer is there.  Many are not even aware they are asking any questions at all -- so sure are they that they know what they are doing -- until they can't, because of injury or unbearable pain or discomfort warning them they should stop.  The body is wise in its intelligence to recognize that -- despite all the advice and encouragement otherwise.

But when everything makes perfectly good sense, there is no such resistance and objection -- because it is not crippling, but enabling and empowering -- and one would not do otherwise, because nothing else makes more sense to do -- if one still does anything at all.  Most people are actually advised not to do anything until and unless they consult with "professional opinion" (over one's own senses) -- which they can rely on to be dependent for the rest of their lives -- as only fit to follow another's orders, including and especially their own well-being, keeping them weak and dependent forevermore, and getting worse, with every passing year.

That is what we too familiarly recognize as the "aging" and "disabling" problem that is the epidemic of these times -- that the weak simply get weaker, all their lives, with no hope of a recovery and turnaround.  That is just the "normal" aging process, these experts will proclaim -- and for that, they will always be "there" for us, and never the possibility, that we will ever be strong enough not to need them.

Then society goes into a hopeless downward spiral without end, as the only possibility, in that people can only get worse, and never better -- and then want to get worse, faster -- to get even more aid and so we get to the current health care crisis of increasing, endless resources for the dying -- rather than the living.