Dead-lifting and Rationality, Part 1

Precisely what rationality is and its importance can be puzzling to people who are born into, raised and conditioned in a society in which rationality isn't really encouraged. The reasons for this are complex. The purpose of this post (and the next one) is not so much to examine those reasons, but to examine our approach to growing in rationality -- how to become wiser. We will use an analogy to assist.

An analogy is an attempt to help someone increase their understanding of something complex and abstract by relating it to something more simple and easily understood. An analogy can be a good way of growing in understanding, as long as the analogy actually has any merit and is not pressed too far. For example, it would be correct to say, "this apple is like that car in that they are both red material objects," but to then argue that, like the apple, you could eat the car, or that cars grow on trees would, of course, be nonsense. The analogy we are going to employ is simply lifting a heavy weight. You could easily substitute other human skills (e.g., painting, singing, driving, chess, etc.).

Working Against Designed Atrophy

The human body is an amazing thing, constantly adjusting to its environment, stresses, challenges, etc. With respect to overall condition -- and especially flexibility and strength -- our bones, joints, muscles, tendons and such contract and weaken to accommodate common challenges. Suppose that, for whatever reason, you kept your arm in a sling for the next two years, never taking it out, never rotating your shoulder through its full range of motion, never extending your elbow, using your wrist or hand. When the sling was removed, the arm would be nearly-useless, weak and unable to move even though it was no longer restrained by the sling. During the motionless months, the body would not have wasted resources on the unused arm, but diverted them elsewhere. On the other hand, if you chose to exercise and stress regularly over a two year span, chances are that you'll experience increased strength, flexibility, endurance and other benefits as the body adjusts to its challenges.

Depending on one's work and life, on most days, we don't lift objects weighing more than 20-30 pounds (and many of us lift nothing heavier than a cup of coffee or a sandwich). When we hardly ever lift anything weighing more than a few pounds, to suddenly be confronted by a 40+ pound object -- like having to move a large box or piece of furniture -- can seem strenuous or even lead to an injury.

However, with a few pointers, and barring disability, people of average health can generally lift about 2/3rds of their body weight via an exercise called a dead-lift. So, if you weigh 150 pounds, you can probably lift about 100 pounds right now with a little coaching, or about 5x what we might actually pick up during a typical work day (except for those in labor-intensive work, of course).

But wait, there's more: With extended effort, diet, time, technique, etc., some people can progress to where they can lift 3- or even 4-times their body weight. In other words, it is conceivable that a person who weighs 200 pounds, with enough time and training, could lift 800 or more pounds. Compared to what we usually pick up in a given day -- things weighing maybe 20 to 40 pounds -- that is about 20 to 40 times greater. That is an incredible feat! (At present, the world record for dead-lift is a little over 1000 pounds, by a monster who weighs about 380. Heavier persons tend to be able to lift about 2x their body weight, while lighter people can lift more, relative to their body mass.)

A person's ultimate lifting capacity is often far beyond not only what he can presently lift, but even more-so relative to what we typically lift. As mentioned earlier, if we are used to only lifting a few pounds at a time in a day, suddenly being faced with a 40 or 50 pound weight may seem challenging or lead to an injury... but not if the person has trained and can actually lift hundreds of pounds. Such a person will be able to handle the 50 pound item -- the one that others find difficult and dangerous -- with relative ease. Indeed, he could handle much more, and he knows it.

Think about that for a moment. If a 40 pound object requires some effort, and maybe gets the heart pumping. Imagine what that would feel like if you had trained your body to be able to lift just 200 or more pounds? The 40 pound weight that now causes a flush of sweat and heavy breathing would feel like nothing.

In addition to the fact that every person, barring some kind of infirmity, is capable of lifting many times more than he typically does, we have to acknowledge a couple hard facts:

1. It requires a lot of hard work, training, sweat, pain, soreness, etc., to grow substantially in strength. It is much easier -- at least it feels easier -- to forego all of that and just get by as we are.
2. Different people have different innate capabilities. It may not seem fair, but that is just how it is. When it comes to lifting, there are people who can, with little training or effort, lift 400 pounds, and there are people who must expend great time and effort to lift 150 -- that 150 may be much more than they can lift now, and represents a great improvement, but they may never be able to lift 400 pounds, no matter how hard they train.

So there are some simple facts about lifting heavy things. No doubt this has made your day! But, in all seriousness, I explain this not in hopes that you go out and work on your dead-lift (though it might have its benefits), but because there are many parallels between a person's ability to lift a weight, and his ability to think deeply. Please note that I used the word parallel and not correlation! :)

That is, we spend most days barely exercising our minds. They are engaged just enough to get by. We keep them numbed with music, talk radio, gossip, television, video games, drugs, etc. We are just barely awake. If really pressed -- if someone drops a 50 pound intellectual/emotional weight on us -- we might be able to give it a decent push, but it will seem really hard compared to what we typically handle, and there is a decent chance of error or some kind of psychological panic. However, such a load is practically nothing compared to what we can do if we exercise our minds over time and train ourselves to think deeply.

(Who else finds this image disturbing?)

Of course, like the heavy lifter, this doesn't mean that you then have to spend every moment of every day lifting massive objects. All it means is that the typical challenges will gradually become easier, to the point that they seem nearly effortless. Indeed, you can become capable of lifting (understanding) things that, to most people, are untouchable (incomprehensible). And that is kind of bad news, for while some people will respect your growth in wisdom, others will deem you crazy or dangerous.

Does this mean that life will suddenly become easy and wonderful, or that everything will be perfect? Absolutely not, for we live in a culture that is deeply irrational. Becoming more rational, more wise, might help you in your life, and perhaps those immediately near you, but we will all still experience tragedy, loss, heartache, betrayal, etc.

So how do we do this? How can we grow in rationality and wisdom? What kind of "exercises" should I do to avoid psychological atrophy?

This will be the topic for the next post.