When it goes out of ease and into disease
Time for a visit with Mr Profundity.
You’ll never guess what he’s gone and done – he’s only gone and rejected the modern world and its medical technology. Did you ever?
Big picture aside, most of what afflicts us today – cancer, obesity, mental illness, diabetes, stress, auto-immune disorders, heart disease, along with those slow killers: meaninglessness, clock-watching and loneliness – are industrial ailments. We create stressful, toxic, unhealthy lifestyles fuelled by sugar, caffeine, tobacco, antidepressants, adrenaline, discontent, energy drinks and fast food, and then defend the political ideology that got us hooked on these things in the first place. Our sedentary jobs further deplete our physical, emotional and mental wellbeing, but instead of honestly addressing the root cause of the illness we exert ever more effort, energy, genius and money trying to treat the symptoms and contain the epidemics.
Wow! I never knew any of that. I thought we should consume all the tobacco and adrenaline and discontent we possibly can. No wonder I need to sleep seven hours a night.
The philosophy underlying my approach is that of any herbalist: keep the vitality in your body strong, and be mindful to do it every day. When it goes out of ease and into disease, use the appropriate plants – the original source of many industrial medicines – to bring your body and mind back into balance, and to restore optimal functioning. Your body is always aiming for balance and health, and listening to it is one of the best things you can do. Illness is feedback – the sooner you heed it and restore your vitality, the less likely it is you’ll develop more serious problems.
Keep the vitality in your body strong! I know it’s fun to do your best to weaken it, but don’t, because it’s not good for you.
I pick my own fruit and vegetables from the garden and hedgerows, and eat them as fresh, raw and unwashed as is optimal.
Ahhh.
Wait, what? I eat my food as fresh, raw and unwashed as is optimal too. I think we all do what we consider optimal. For all we know what Mr Profundity considers optimal is putting all his vegetables and fruit in the washing machine and pushing the start button.
I cycle 120km each week to lakes and rivers, where I then spend three evenings of that week relaxing and catching the following day’s dinner. I work outdoors, getting sweaty and dirty doing things I enjoy. I made the tough decision to live in the natural world so that I could breathe clean air, drink pure water and create life that allows others the same. I wash with water, and water only. I use no chemicals inside or outside the house. I wear as few clothes as I need, I use nothing electrical – no fridge, no screens, no phone. I avoid sugar, caffeine and stress like the plague.
What’s he doing avoiding the plague? It’s so nice and natural.
Sleep comes and goes with the light – I find six hours of peaceful rest sufficient. If and when I do feel ill or out of balance, my girlfriend Kirsty (who illustrates these articles and is teaching herself herbalism) recommends a plant from our herb patch and I slowly feel vital again. She’s currently drying yarrow, horsetail, silverweed, self-heal, calendula and chamomile for the winter months.
Have a dandelion, you’ll feel more vital.
If we all tried to live the kind of life he suggests, then we could not sustain the current human population.
More to the point Neil, many of those who live would suffer all the ailments, diseases disfigurations and disablements that our forbears did when they lived exactly the same way. Scratch yourself while gardening or foraging? probably not a big deal most of the time, but that once every now and then when a nasty infection sets in – weeks of illness and disability, an increased chance of something secondary snatching you away then or later, the risk of being permanently disabled and even death. This even happens now, with all our hygiene and medical treatment. The difference is that when this happens now, we regard it as a freak happenstance. When it happened back in the day, well, that was just life.
So much bullshit laid on a substrate of a little bit of truth.
Yes, a fair fraction of the common Western diseases, especially those of old age, are lifestyle-related. Of course, the fact that we live long enough to get them is largely due to that horrible industrial society he prissily rejects. Yes, we could it a lot more wisely — in fact, we’d damn well better learn how, and soon — but just walking away from it isn’t really an option, for most of the world’s population.
And hay fever is sensitive to CO2 levels in the 10^2 ppm range? Who knew?
I see he manages to fit the old “I use no chemicals” in there. 100% accurate signifier of bullshittery.
I wish I had the time for such quaint life. Won’t somebody start a kickstarter for me?
I eat my discontent as fresh, raw and unwashed as is optimal – maybe even moreso! Ha, take that privileged nature boy!
Depends on how far back you go. Pre-civilisation humans seem to have been pretty free from most of those things.
Playing at milkmaids in the gardens of Versailles. Who subsidizes this VR game?
I spend several minutes in my Environmental Science class explaining why this is nonsense. If I can affect a few dozen people a year on this, and immunize them from “no chemicals” quackery, I feel like at least I’m doing something.
iknklast: keep up the good work. My wife has a habit of referring to “chemicals” with a particular inflexion in her voice that adds “… that I disapprove of for certain reasons that I can’t fully articulate”. I roll my eyes: I’ve already given the speech, but the shorthand is just too convenient.
Pinkeen, that’s unmitigated bollocks. The fossil record is replete with evidence of disease and disablement. It’s also worth noting that early human life spans were very short. There’s a reason life was short.
Ötzi had pretty bad arthritis, if I remember correctly. One suggested explanations of his tattoos is that they were meant to be medical.
I pick my own fruit and vegetables from the garden and hedgerows, and eat them as fresh, raw and unwashed as is optimal. I cycle 120km each week to lakes and rivers, where I then spend three evenings of that week relaxing and catching the following day’s dinner. I work outdoors, getting sweaty and dirty doing things I enjoy.
Oh wow. Next time I meet somebody from a slum in Lima I will make sure to tell them to follow this advice. Just pick your own vegetables from the wall of your shack! Cycle a bit! Take three evenings off! And all will be well.
Pinkeen,
A few years ago I read a report on the analysis of 10,000 years old human remains in the Americas. Apparently the bodies of the neolithic population there were teeming with intestinal worms. (Also the men seem to have generally died of getting their heads clubbed in, the researchers suspect while fighting over possession of the women, but that is another matter.)
Herbalism is a perfectly respectable profession – if you’re playing WoW.
How did he build that all-natural, chemical-free bicycle, I wonder. Out of willow?
The very finest goat hair?