With all the talk of making America healthy again, I think it worth considering that the most urgent point of concern should be America’s mental health.
I would submit that the greater portion of this nation’s physical maladies (among other disorders less tangible but equally as obvious) can find as their source an unhealthy mind.
It wasn’t always this way. What happened?
Modern “civilization” happened.
Attempts dating back more than a century to socially engineer* eager consumers, compliant employees, and obedient subjects have succeeded in producing multiple generations that are increasingly out of touch with Reality, generations surrounded by illusion which has led inexorably to unchecked delusion. (For clarity, illusion is external while delusion is internal.) Though it is unlikely that the intent was to create untold millions of damaged souls with impaired minds, this has been the outcome all the same. Our existence has been industrialized and what it is to be Human has consequently been commoditized. What was started back then has shepherded us to where we are now, and where we are now is not a good place to be.
We are ravenous; this manifests in the way we eat. We are tired and weary; this manifests as sluggishness and laziness. We are isolated and lonely; this manifests in the way we seek out real connections thru the most artificial of means. We are unfulfilled; this manifests in the way we consume like a raging fire. We are disoriented; we add to this bewilderment even more by blunting our sensations with stimulants or depressants. We are blind; this manifests as an inability (or unwillingness) to see Beauty or even acknowledge its existence and its importance in our lives. We are lost; this manifests in the confusion about the most fundamental expressions of what it is to be a Human.
To be weak or infirm or disturbed should be the exception and not the rule. Healthy and balanced is our natural state; instead, the anomalous has proliferated and increasingly become the norm.
On the road to a more vibrant health, removing toxins from our environments generally and our food supply specifically is a good start; but this is low-hanging fruit which, alone, will take us only so far. Encouraging the transition from a sedentary lifestyle to one characterized by a functional dynamism is the next logical and necessary step. However, if these are the only measures taken, this too is more akin to treating symptoms rather than addressing the root cause.
Mind, consciousness, psyche, soul, spirit, call it what you will. Whatever you call it, it is this part of our Being that has been most deleteriously affected by the years of programming and engineering, and it is this unseen part of our Selves that is the motor driving the sickness which in some form or fashion impacts and afflicts us all.
Our minds have been adulterated, not unlike one or more lines of corrupted code in the operating system of the Self. The conditioning remains unrelenting and without mercy, impacting all elements of our Being: Physical, Emotional, Mental, and Spiritual. The resulting pathogenic ethos has proven to be self-replicating and highly contagious, with one impaired mind either passively or actively influencing others to see and experience thru the same cracked and grimy lens.
Contributing to the perennial nature of our afflictions is the curious inversion of reward and punishment for following (or failing to follow) the prevailing chaotic societal decrees of the moment, of what is now considered “normal.” The meanings of “good” and “bad”, “healthy” or “unhealthy” have been upended and are encouraged or discouraged accordingly. Any who dare to contradict or otherwise resist this unnaturalness are routinely mocked, denigrated, or shunned.
To be healthy requires courage. We must first acknowledge the severity of our circumstances and start our return to wellbeing and sanity there. The contrived and artificial must be replaced with the genuine and natural. Instead of seeking satisfaction and fulfillment in the aberrant and the easy, we must make the hard choices and do the hard things. And the hardest things begin in and with the mind.
The “errors in the software code” must be addressed thru diligent and consistent attention, by pruning away the synthetic branches of thought that have never served the greater Humanity. Our physical state will follow the lead of our minds, and our minds must return to and embrace once again the concepts and values which have over the decades become all but irrelevant to the contemporary and conditioned individual. Some of those concepts and values include:
Accountability
Perseverance
Impulse management
Resilience
Critical thinking
Self-awareness
Self-reliance
Autonomy
Agency
Finally, I wish to emphasize that the focus of this short essay extends far beyond weak and sickly bodies. When the mind itself is faulty the body will of due course reflect that like a polished mirror. It all comes down to the verity that a healthy body must have at its foundation a healthy mind.
Un-wellness can be transcended; rarely is it fated and immutable.
©Billy Red Horse/The Gentleman Mystic
*(For a deeper dive into the assertions regarding the claims of social engineering and the resulting unintended consequences, I recommend you start first with the 4 part documentary produced in 2002 by the BBC called THE CENTURY OF THE SELF and the book written by 1989, 1990, and 1991 former New York City Teacher of the Year, John Taylor Gatto, called THE UNDERGROUND HISTORY OF AMERICAN EDUCATION.)