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Like Glenn Beck, I worry about America. Unlike Mr. Beck, I deal with this worry without theatrics. As the pundits and experts have argued, America is facing serious economic and political challenges. For example, a hot talking point these days is that the government is broken.
As I see it, it is not the political machinery that is broken. While I am not slavishly devoted to the works of the founders, they did construct an impressive political machine. Of course, having a good machine is not enough-the operators also matter a great deal.
In the case of America, our state machine is operated directly by the politicians and indirectly by the rest of us. To stay at the wheels of the machine, the politicians have to pander to us and generally give us what we want. Unfortunately, what we generally want is not the best for us. Part of the problem is that our vices tend to overwhelm our virtues.
To steal a bit from Aristotle, it is easy to spend money, it is easy to get angry, and it is easy to get fat. It is hard to spend money wisely, it is hard to know when to be angry and at what, and it is hard to stay fit. Unfortunately, we all too often take the easy way.
While people often cry out for wise spending, the folks in congress know that they cannot touch our entitlements without risking putting their political heads on the chopping block. Interestingly, even the folks who are against the government say absurd and foolish things such as demanding that the government keep its hands off their medicare. This nicely illustrates a common irrationality: people want the government to cut spending but to do so without reducing any of their entitlements. However, if we are going to deal with our deficit and massive spending, we will need to do what is hard: curb our entitlements. If we have the collective will, the public virtue to give up some of our private good for the general good, then we can do this. If not, well history tells us what happens to empires that open up the treasury for bread and circuses.
Following Aristotle, there are things that deserve our anger. However, we are often quick to anger at little provocation and not prone to ask if the anger is directed at the right people, at the right time, to the right degree and for the right reasons. A pundit drives us into a rage and we assume that because we are angry we must have a perfectly good reason for that anger. In some cases, people take this anger to extremes and, for example, crash a plane into a building. To be ruled by this irrational anger is to fall victim to a terrible vice. While we should not deaden our ability to feel righteous outrage, we need to work on controlling our anger or it will surely control us.
While being obese might seem to have nothing to do with politics, there is a connection. While some folks have physiological problems that make weight control difficult, this is not true of the vast majority of people. It is a simple matter of physics and biology: if energy intake exceeds energy expenditure in a human, that human will start building fat. As has been trumpeted out across the nation, Americans are a fat people. The average weight of Americans has increased dramatically over the years even though we reached a state of abundance quite some time ago. As such, the difference is most likely behavioral: people are consuming more and expending less energy. This is, of course, intuitively supported by the fact that we are now an internet culture whose leisure activities are physically passive. There are, of course, many other contributing factors but the fact is that we are fat.
While I would never claim that fat people are being morally bad, fatness does seem to be a mark of vice: either the vice of over consumption or the vice of sloth (or both). Our vices (and virtues) tend to be a general part of our character rather than existing in compartments. As such, one who is prone to sloth and overindulgence in one area will tend to have that behavior as a general trait (there are, of course, exceptions). An examination of our spending habits and the behavior that got us into the financial mess seem to involve these vices. Though we are consistent, this consistency is not a desirable one.
I will not claim that physical fitness will help cure our economic and political woes. However, I do contend that we need to work on developing the virtues that oppose the vices of over consumption and sloth. While doing this will not suffice by itself to save the economy, it would help a great deal.
The beauty of democracy is that it gives us the government we deserve and reflects who we are. If our government is wasteful, bloated and undisciplined this is because we are as well. If we want the government to change, we need to change ourselves. Good government, to steal a bit from Aquinas and Aristotle, requires good people. We can be those people, if we have the will to try.
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“Nothing good is easy”~ Cliff Harding
There is a great book on philosophy and fat. Well worth reading (and still in print):
The Philosopher’s Diet: How to Lose Weight & Change the World (Nonpareil Book, 81) (Paperback)
~ Richard A. Watson (Author)
This toothsome classic takes on the combined challenges of discovering the meaning of the universe and eliminating fat at the same time. Its topic sentence contains a promise that should sell millions: “In this book, I tell how to take weight off and keep it off.” He doesn’t stop there, but continues, “The book also embodies a philosophy of life. The weight program is the content of the book, the philosophy of life is its form.” If Descartes had sat down to write a treatise on losing weight as a metaphor for maintaining discipline amidst life’s vicissitudes, it would have read much like this.
Clearly, Mr. Watson has not written a low-fat, new-age, easy-fix solution for the weight challenged. After all, losing weight is hard work. But for our money, it is the most erudite, fascinating, and eccentric book ever written on the subject of weight control, a combination of common sense (driven by human experience), Cartesian philosophy, and the presumption that understanding the mysteries of weight loss and the universe are somehow compatible, even sympathetic, ambitions.
The author is (of course) a professional philosopher, and this extraordinary exegesis is at once a moral manifesto, a philosophical discourse, and a practical manual (although the chapter on “How to Live” and “How to Die” take it a few steps beyond the ordinary). We love this book for its humor, its iconoclasm, and its weird and wacky mixture of high seriousness and low humor. Read it. Even if you’re not overweight, it’s a book to treasure.
The “impressive political machine” constructed by the Founders may not be broken, but has weaknesses. Sanford Levinson’s “Our Unconstitutional Constitution” lists some of them. Among them is Article V, the weakness of which is best exemplified by Amendment 27. “No law varying the compensation of services of the senators and representatives shall take effect until an election of representatives shall have intervened.” A perfectly common-sense concept. And given The power of incumbency a relatively superficial attempt to reign in congressional corruption. Or at least keep it out of the Congressional Record 🙂 . The amendment was first proposed in 1789. It was ratified 74003 days later. In 1982. Now, there’s deliberate and then there’s ‘deliberate’. Then there’s inefficient. Levinson thinks Article V of the machine could benefit from some tinkering.
Slip o’ the keyboard. Levinson actually wrote “Our Undemocratic Constitution”.
True, it has its flaws. Fortunately, it contains mechanisms that allow it to be fixed without chucking the whole machine.
“Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.”
C. S. Lewis
At the very least, an improvement in national fitness levels would mean a reduction in obesity-related health woes, thereby cutting back on healthcare costs. Physiological problems aside, I believe that moderation in everything is key, unfortunately that’s a concept not currently in vogue.
Jules, I would be willing to bet that the healthy little old lady who lives to be 100 uses far more health care resources in her life than the obese smoker who dies at 50 from a coronary or lung cancer.
You’d be amazed at how 30 years of weekly trips to the doctor and a fistful of prescriptions add up.
tj, I nominate you to be Chairman of the First Intergalactic, Non-Partisan, Non-Governmental, Non-Insurance Company, Non-Corporate Death Panel (FIN-PN-GN-ICN-CDP). You seem to have the proper mindset. 🙂
OK, but just don’t let the government near my medicare 🙂
You have a point there T. J. What with all the medical advances, those who keep fit and healthy can expect to live longer, thereby using up healthcare resources for age-related health woes.
I’m an Asian living in Asia, where in many parts there is a scarcity of food, so I do admit to being put off at some cases of excessive food intake in other parts of the world.
The book you recommended sounds very interesting indeed. I shall try to get my hands on a copy.
tj–Sorry. The needs (and the powers) of FIN-PN-GN-ICN-CDP would, of necessity, outweigh the needs of your sacrosanct ‘socialist’ Medicare system. . . I believe we may have uncovered a potential conflict of interest here. You fit the “screw my neighbors by not me” profile, but you likely would not pass committee review. To maintain the appearance of total objectivity the FIN-PN-GN-ICN-CDP would likely require a leader who is ready , willing, and able to sentence even himself to death for the greater cause. Ask yourself: “Am I right for the job?”.*
* Should FIN-PN-GN-ICN-CDP become a reality, you may still consider seeking the position. Please know that if I am on the selection committee, I will put in a good word or two for you. I would also request that the committee require you to arrive at Our Headquarters wearing a vest laden with explosives. Obviously, we’d require you to detonate those explosives at some considerable distance from Our Headquarters. Should you survive, you’ll probably (depending on the extent of brain damage sustained, etc) be reconsidered for the position.
True. A significant portion of health care problems (and hence cost) does stem from poor health practices (bad diet, lack of exercise, smoking and so on).