Strength vs Weakness
I got spun up a bit at last night’s post-workout Tequila Friday (reminder: if you show up at my place for workouts, you get Tequila - and rants! - on Friday): There is a culture of weakness and fear in the country, and we need to stop it - that’s why I originally opened the gym, that’s why I keep the driveway workouts going, and more.
Haidt made a great argument in The Coddling of the American Mind about the self-esteem culture and how the lack of challenge and reward for success has made people weak and afraid and unable to navigate the world successfully.
We see it in the victim culture all over the media and social media. People are rewarded for being victims and invent victimization categories so that they get the positive feedback of being a victim.
Everyone wants a safe space, they want comfort and protection against feeling bad. They want to bend the world to suit them. No one wants to do the work to make themselves resilient to the world (some might say antifragile).
It all blew up with the pandemic response. Everyone was (rightly) scared at the beginning and was way to quick to give up their rights for the government to protect them. And now we’re caught in a state where people are afraid to go outside for fear of getting a cold.
This all comes down to people being weak and afraid. Everyone is afraid at sometime, the world is a scary place. But if you’re strong and afraid, you face the challenges and make it through. If you’re weak, you just wait for someone to tell you what to do, and it always comes down to the authoritarians who take charge and you’re more than happy to give up your freedoms because someone else is “keeping you safe”.
Being physically strong makes you mentally and emotionally strong. You can walk through life not being afraid, and that reinforces the neural pathways of strength and facing challenges. Rather than holding a mindset of fear and waiting for the experts to tell you what to do.
That doesn’t mean the 800-pound-deadlifter is a better person than you - as long as you are trying to make yourself stronger today than you were yesterday, you’re on the right path. The act of working towards strength makes you independent, it makes you see the authoritarians for what they are, it gives you the courage to stand up and say something before you lose your freedoms.
And it’s not just the pandemic, there have been many other examples in the news recently about weak people waiting for the government to save them, and the government actors are so scared and weak that they didn’t follow through and just waited for orders from above. At some point it’s up to you to stand up, be strong, and take action.
I started the gym because I thought most other gyms were just collections of meatheads that wanted big muscles or high five after a hard workout. I didn’t like that, I wanted people to work on getting stronger no matter where they started.
After lockdown, I kept the workouts going in my driveway because I wanted to keep everyone’s fitness up because it looked like a good way to be resilient to the virus. Plus I’m selfish and wanted people to workout with - I like the community. It’s now the highlight of my day when people drive up in the evening.
After visiting the middle school that Alek is going to next year, I was dismayed about the weakness talk everywhere. I’m tempted to start a weightlifting club there (but I don’t think I can deal with middle schoolers, I can barely deal with adults…)
It is your responsibility to take care of your health and be strong.
It is your responsibility to be strong enough to take care of your family.
It is your family’s responsibility to be strong enough to take care of your community.
You need to be out there doing the hard things that make your community better. Do not wait for orders from above. Do not wait for anyone to save you. Do not blindly follow rules just because the authorities are trying to keep you safe.
Be strong in the face of fear and make your community a better place. Don’t give up your freedoms or your rights for the appearance and feeling of safety. Don’t support the culture of weakness and victimhood. Make people around you strong and resilient, that’s how we get a better world.
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