Fitness and Health: building the basis for the collective good

I’ve thought a lot about whether I should be more a little more political. It is very true that the personal is political, so our daily actions and beliefs have political consequences. That happens everywhere and this site and my posts are meant to harness this idea through fitness and nutrition, and the ideas of a life well-lived to inspire change. I believe very strongly that we need urgent change, or the world is heading towards catastrophe. There is the spectre of environmental catastrophe which we are on the brink of experiencing. Some climate scientists warn we are already there, almost all of the rest say we are sitting on the precipice of disaster and yet, many of the world’s leaders turn a blind eye to what is happening as they continue to reap personal and political gains that accrue from supporting fossil fuels. Some predictions are that in the next ten years if global warming continues at current rates as much as 50% of the world’s population will be severely economically impacted. And, it will be the 50% of humanity who can least afford it that will bear the brunt of the effects of climate change. What is most unfair is that the poorest 50% of the world’s population contribute 12% of the greenhouses gasses that contribute to climate change while the richest 10% produce just over half. 

Just as alarmingly, the world’s resources are more unequally distributed than ever before. Never have so few had so much and so many had so little. The statistics are mind-boggling but world leaders and the populations that vote for them continue to support a system that drives more wealth upwards than ever in human history. In 2022, the richest .003 percent of the world’s population held 8.5% of the entire world’s wealth. The richest 1% of the world’s population owned 46% of the world’s wealth. Add in the next 9% of the world’s richest and this figure rises to 76% of the world’s wealth. In reverse, this means that 90% of the world’s population share less than ¼ of the world’s wealth. The implications of such immense inequality are legion. In the poor world, inequality is responsible for the immiseration of billions of people, some who embrace extremism, some who desperately seek to leave their homes and risk everything in search of a better life, some who rail against their governments at home in the hope of building a fairer society. In the rich world, inequality is also on the rise leading to the hollowing out of the state and a lack of trust in government. The rise of the uber-rich, and their control over the political machinery, through lobbies, through control of the media, through financial power, and so on, has led to a time where politics no longer serves the majority of the people. No wonder many, many people have lost faith in government. Strikingly, it is often the people benefitting most from the political system, in Australia it is the mining magnates, the agri-industrialists, the media tycoons and the holders of financial wealth who rail the loudest about how ineffective governments are and seek to rally the disaffected against government. It doesn’t take much to see that their aim is to focus popular attention on anyone but themselves and to ensure that people are not scrutinising the massive amount of loot they are plundering and hoarding away.

The people and interests that are responsible for the crisis of government and democracy are also producing a society that is meaner and more self-interested. No surprise that they are reproducing their own values. Gone is the kindness and compassion, the solidarity that binds us all together. They tell us we are all individual units seeking our own economic interests. This is the world they are constructing. A world where everything has a monetary value. The first question they want us to ask whenever there is an initiative that will improve public or collective good is “what will it cost”? When I hear this play out, I recall Oscar Wilde’s definition of a cynic is a person who knows the cost of everything but the value of nothing. Unfortunately, we live in a world dominated by people who become cynics whenever there is a policy or idea put forward that does not benefit them directly.

They want this because driving down government costs means that those with the most will not be forced to contribute more. They want a system where they keep more and more of what they gain. Privatise everything, reduce government spending of almost everything, deregulate the economy and focus government attention on disciplining and regulating our lives. These are the mantras of our time and they are producing meaner, unhappier and more divided societies. Gone is the “fair go”, the belief in “egalitarianism”, the attachment to a system that takes more from those that have more and gives more to those who have less. Instead, we now have a system that gives more to those who already have lots while vilifying, criminalising, disciplining and extracting more from those that have the least.

There is one area of life that I keep coming back to as what I believe is one method to redefine the beliefs of our time and address the “ills” of our contemporary world. I know it is a long bow to draw that health and fitness can save us from environmental destruction, inequality and increasing individualism and self-interest. But I believe that the gym and fitness culture more generally have a lot to offer in regard to building community, reminding people of the power of the collective, of the joy that comes with being part of something larger than oneself. I used to believe that Universities was where the good fight could be fought. I still think there is some space for it there. But, more and more, that space is being squeezed as universities embrace the same values of commercialisation, commodification and self-interest. One place where money and wealth have little sway is in the gym. When facing 50 wall balls, a 1RM lift or a max effort row for 1km money does little to help. Mostly, it is just you and your effort, and the community you are in. The gym is a competitive place, it is also a kind and supportive one. If only society could reflect more of these values, I’m sure the world would be a better place.

Until next time, be kind, be caring, be strong, be Herculean.