As you might know I’m heading to Las Vegas today. I think I’m gonna sample at least a few buffet’s and there will definitely be some prime rib on the menu.

As with most vegas trips I’m not exactly sure what’s gonna happen…and whatever does happen I’m not sure this blog will be a good place for posting it afterwards anyway.

But I’ll check back in at least a couple times while I’m there.

In the meantime does anyone have suggestions for food places to check out on the strip?

So far I’ve been recommended the buffet at Luxor and I know the Breakfast/Brunch buffet at Paris kicks ass.

John

I’m bumping this post this morning. I’ll be back in a few hours with a new post.

Working off of yesterdays discussion about the emasculation of the modern man it seems appropriate to bring up the concept of meme’s and specifically the meme of the modern man.

Ideas are like viruses. If it gets in you, its almost impossible to get rid of

First we need to define what a meme is:

MEME: A meme ( rhyming with “cream”⁾ is a postulated unit of cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena. (wikipedia)

The idea of a meme was postulated by Richard Dawkins and he suggests that memes as similar to genes and get passed along from one generation to the next. Obviously this is a simplistic explanation but it will suffice for this blog post.

For our purpose we’ll consider the meme of the modern man to be the bundle of images, ideals, ideas, representations, expectations and attitudes we’re passively expected to see in a modern man.

Over time these memes evolve, but for them to evolve in the direction of true freedom and self actualization they require effort and push back from people who are being suppressed and against those who would rather put us into boxes.

We don’t have to go too far back in history to find that at some point black men wouldn’t be included in the meme of modern man but rather in the meme of slave. Since the emancipation and the 13th amendment to the constitution slavery was abolished and the integration of black men into the meme of modern man began.

In more recent years the acceptance of homosexuality and the idea that sexuality is actually a continuum and not a dichotomy is the next and latest evolution of the meme of modern man.

This meme is constantly evolving…and in these two examples it’s evolving towards more freedom and natural rights that all men have.

No matter how many ways an organized government apparatus or social organized construction tries to contain and strip away natural rights, there will always be a break point where the push back for freedom overwhelms and the natural rights are restored.

It’s not exactly simple and in many cases blood is shed, but the natural law eventually wins out.

The point is that there are immutable truths about freedom and natural law that are inherent in sentient beings like us. And no matter how many societal constructions/laws/rules are put in place, if they do not fall in accordance with this natural law and right to freedom, they will, eventually at some point collapse.

John

P.S. The next discussion on this topic will be the feminist movement and how it’s had the single biggest impact on the lifestyle and meme of modern man…and how this too is not in accordance with natural law and eventually will collapse.

This is an interesting point that came up in yesterdays rather lively discussion and it’s something that has been irritating me for a while, so I think it’s about time we talk about it.

What Happened to All the Men?

Keeping in the spirit of items that seem to have become taboo to talk about, I want to bring up the issue of the modern emasculated man.

To say it bluntly, it seems that the modern industrialized societies are breeding emasculated men. This is not to say that there must be a difference between the basic human rights of men and women, because there simply isn’t. Women and men are all human and have the same natural rights.

BUT, there is a difference between what is male and what is female. There is a difference between what is masculine and what is feminine. It seems that these difference are not an issue we’re allowed to talk about.

There is a feminist movement, but there isn’t a masculinist movement. (I think a movement promoting either case is ridiculous)…to be clear, I’m not promoting the suppression of women’s rights. Like I said before, we’re all human and deserve the same right.

Traditionally and psychologically women are attracted to masculine attributes that we associate with a ‘man’s man’. Just like men are attracted to feminine women.

This doesn’t mean you cannot be sophisticated, well spoken, and it doesn’t mean you have to wear a hard hat to work and have callouses on your hands. It just means that you still need to be masculine.

This however seems to be harder to do than it sounds. So what is being masculine? Does it mean you have to be a cage fighther? Do you have to get your hands dirty at work? Do you have to be a soldier?

Is a man supposed to show sensitivity or not? Is he supposed to be a leader or take orders? Can he wear a suit to work or does he have to wear steel toe boots?

What is a man supposed to look like? A case can be made that as a man becomes emasculated from these other factors he also gives up on his body image.

I think the answer has to do with having strength in your own character and standing for something you believe in (including what you think a man should look like). This is something that is easier said than done and in our given societies it seems to be much easier to fall in line and to do as your told than it is to stand for something even if its not a popular stance.

The underlying issue of it all is freedom.

Freedom to have an opinion and act on it. Freedom to stand for something. Freedom to express your beliefs.

Given the structures that we’re constrained to live within, it is difficult to actually be who you really want to be without breaking some sort of rule, whether it is a social meme or some inane law. This renders many men nothing more than overgrown children constantly asking for ‘permission’ from their boss, government, and in some cases spouses (seriously asking if they can go out and play…), and getting scolded and further emasculated when they don’t do as they’re told. In this sense you could say the world is populated with few MEN and many BOYS.

A lack of freedom to think for yourself and express it is what I believe to be at the root of the modern emasculation of men.

The state apparatus is what I consider to be the biggest contributing factor to this problem as there is a law for just about everything and anything you can think of doing. On top of that there is an every increasing set of social definitions and patterns you are being forced to fit into…none of which you have chosen, all of which are being forced onto you.

We’ve got to get back to some middle ground where men can be men again without worrying about political correctness and having to take courses on gender roles in society.

The last time I checked I’m pretty sure women still like men who look and act like men.

So ladies, what do you want a man to be?

Fellas, what do you think it means to be a man?

John

Yesterdays post generated an interesting discussion, and one of the comments stimulated today’s post.

Logic vs Emotion

I want to thank Irene for her comment because it forced me to elaborate my point and also clearly demonstrates the issue at hand and reason for yesterdays post in the first place.

Yesterdays headline was written in order to get attention, the more attention the headline can grab the more people will give a read and hopefully a good discussion will start. This is just standard stuff and how all media function.

From there Irene pointed out that she didn’t understand the point of my post and questioned if I was perhaps starting a fat person haters club.

Obviously on a blog it’s difficult to properly express emotion with written words. To be clear I was writing from a logical position centered around my stated hypothesis about the human reaction to bodyfatness.

However, I cannot control the emotional lens you filter your reading through. I’m sure if 100 different people read yesterdays post there were 100 unique emotional reactions to it.

The potential emotional reactions to yesterdays post is the whole point of why yesterdays post is so difficult to talk about. How do we bring up the topic of body shape and body fatness and our reactions to it and keep the emotion out of it? It’s difficult to come to a logical conclusion if the discussion is clouded by emotion.

Getting to the root of the reaction seems to be one of best starting points to find a solution. BUT if we can’t find a way to talk about it we’ll never get going on a solution.

So, I’m asking you, how do we talk about it?

John

I”m sure the headline of this post will have a number of groups of people up in arms. But I don’t care what anyone else thinks, because it’s true.

100 out of 100 people will say the statue on the left looks better

The fact is most if not all humans find excess bodyfat repulsive, and or disgusting. I’m not referring to these words in the pop culture definition, but I’m referring to them with regards to their dictionary meaning.

Whether the fat is on YOUR body or someone else, you will most likely have some sort of aversion response to it. You’ll eventually hate yourself for the extra fat if it’s on you, or you’ll start to find ways to avoid, discriminate against and steer clear of fat people.

I think there are a number of reasonable and plausible reasons why we have this kind of response to fat, and it’s quite a taboo to talk about it (which is total BS) The first step to fixing any problem is talking openly and frankly about it so here goes…

Why we find fat disgusting and repulsive:

1. It’s a signal of death (or the opposite of health): In other words as you watch some one gain excessive amounts of weight you can easily make the argument that you are literally watching them commit and slow suicide.

2. It’s a signal of unfairness (and ultimately your death because of the fat person): In other words the fat person next to you will consume more than their fair share of food and will literally be taking the food out of your mouth and putting into theirs. In other words, while they are overeating themselves to death, they are starving you to death!

3. It’s a sign of a lack of control (of ones emotions, body, and life in general): This may lead others not to trust a fat person…hence the reason there is a weight bias when employers are interviewing for jobs. All things being equal, if you are hiring a new person at your company, would you pick the fat candidate or the candidate who is in shape (if their credentials were equal)

People who put on increasing amounts of weight had to get the food from somewhere. Since food is scare that means there is less of it to go around for you if the fatties are eating up more than they need. (of course this is exactly what is happening globally, but that is a much more complicated issue)

So they are stockpiling food on their bodies in the form of fat which they don’t need, and leaving you with less food.  From an evolutionary stand point it doesn’t seem fair that one person would eat more than their fair share of food while others are left with less.

Of course I’m not suggesting that a fat person actually takes food right off of your plate. Indeed there is more than enough to go around (at least in modern industrialized countries) but I think this is where our repulsion and disgust response to body fat is rooted…it’s unfair, and its unhealthy.

Ironically having more doesn’t do them any good, it actually makes them worse off.

So that is my theory. I’ve yet to talk to anyone who actually likes the look of excess fat, and considering the intense desire people have for weight loss it’s not a far stretch to suggest the desire for it is deep rooted in our primal emotional responses like disgust and repulsion.

So, there you go, I’ve put it on the table…what do you think?

John