“Man is the only real enemy we have. Remove Man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished forever.” - George Orwell
 
What is progress?
 
What are we saving ourselves from?
 
What is the human condition?
 
What is the ultimate purpose of man?
 
These preceding questions are some we would have to agree on an answer to, if we were to think about and plan for ways we could “progress” as a species.   We would have to know what progress was defined as, if we were to plan to ever get there.  The trouble with the postmodern age’s predominant thought, is that it defines everything as relative in regard to truth, and therefore progress is not actually possible under this paradigm.  Progress is not possible in a postmodern age because if all truth claims are relative, progress does not exist.  In a broader sense, neither does language exist, if you can believe it, because language is an agreed upon form of representations of truth.  Remarkably, George Orwell, author of “1984”, Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World, and FA Hayek, author of “The Road to Serfdom”, all saw this trivialization of language itself back several generations ago when they remarked on “the end of truth” at the end of World War II. 
 
Now, if you reject postmodern relativism (the denial of truth) as I do, and think there are truths out there, then we can continue to discuss and argue and have a conversation about what we think is true and what we think true progress is.   The simple fact that people do argue about what progress is, is strong evidence that it does exist, though it may be elusive and hard to find because if true progress did not exist, we would have nothing to discuss and nothing to argue about!  In this regard, I am hopeful for more conversation, arguing, and thus progress. 
 
So now we are back to the original questions, which must be answered before we can proceed towards our goal:
 
What is progress?
 
What are we saving ourselves from?
 
What is the human condition?
 
What is the ultimate purpose of man?
​

Dr. Charles T. Rubin makes a valiant attempt to grapple with these questions in his excellent book, “The Eclipse of Man: Human Extinction and the Meaning of Progress” (pictured above).  I highly recommend the work as an exploration for the quickly proceeding “transhumanist” movement, born out of both a consumerist culture of maximizing choice, and rapidly expanding artificial intelligence and technology.  Technology and particularly the internet has had a much deeper and harsher effect I think than we realize.  I know it has on me.  I like this quote from Wendell Berry:
 
“It is easy for me to imagine that the next great division of the world will be between people who wish to live as creatures and people who wish to live as machines.” 
 
It would take several pages to summarize The Eclipse of Man, but the last chapter of the book offers us 3 possible scenarios for the future, illustrated by 3 paintings of Icarus, the tragic mythological figure.  A little background first.  Icarus, from Wikipedia:
 
In Greek mythology, Icarus is the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, the creator of the Labyrinth. Often depicted in art, Icarus and his father attempt to escape from Crete by means of wings that his father constructed from feathers and wax. Icarus' father warns him first of complacency and then of hubris, asking that he fly neither too low nor too high, so the sea's dampness would not clog his wings or the sun's heat melt them. Icarus ignored his father's instructions not to fly too close to the sun; when the wax in his wings melted he tumbled out of the sky and fell into the sea.
 
3 Possibilities
 
Dystopia

​The first painting Rubin offers us in his closing thoughts is Daedalus & Icarus, 1799, by Charles Paul Landon.  The beautiful painting illustrates a future of what looks like at first site to be possibility, magic, ingenuity, flight, and potential.   But if you closer look at the painting, what else do you see?  Look in the background and at the details.  There is no time, place, personality, distinction, or circumstance, only an androgynous pair.  And is Daedalus pushing Icarus to a certain death, or grasping to hold on because he knows the tragedy which awaits?  Regardless, though it’s not evident in the painting, we know the likely outcome when Icarus eventually falls from his hubris, and his desire for permanent flight away from his condition. 

Certain Disaster 

The second painting is The Death of Icarus from 1979 by Bernard Heisig.  In this painting, we see only fatal tragedy as Icarus is burned by the sun.  Failure and pain are evident in the abstract scream and crying out from the mythic icon as he falls painfully back to earth.  This is a clear look at a someone who has flown too close to the sun, despite his Father’s warning. 

Realistic but Hopeful

​In the final painting, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by Bruegel, Rubin shows us a hopeful and grounded, but realistic view of the tragic flight of Icarus.  Life goes on, agriculture, travel, commerce proceeds, as they always have as part of the human experience, as Icarus subtly but fatally crashes into the water at the bottom right of the painting.  The land must be cultivated, and there are limits to change.  Animals are present, as are goods to be bought and sold.  You must look hard to even see Icarus landing in the water with scattered feathers.  Bruegel neither denies technology- the boat, the plow, the city, nor attempts to move forever beyond them.   His work acknowledges the human condition, then subtly suggests we ourselves must work to improve as individuals, like all our ancestors have. 

I really enjoyed this book.  I think sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in other things and forget to look at all the beauty, and things to be in awe of right in front of our face, as well as the work that needs to be done in our own lives, own neighborhoods, and our own communities.  The truth is that most things that have been around for a long time are not going anywhere, and the true magic is right in front of our face. 

At the end of the book, Rubin ties in a line from War and Peace about the character Bezukhov’s great internal transformation of character:

In the past he had never been able to find that great inscrutable infinite something. He had only felt that it must exist somewhere and had looked for it. In everything near and comprehensible he had only what was limited, petty, commonplace, and senseless. He had equipped himself with a mental telescope and looked into remote space, where petty worldliness hiding itself in misty distance had seemed to him great and infinite merely because it was not clearly seen. And such had European life, politics, Freemasonry, philosophy, and philanthropy seemed to him. But even then, at moments of weakness as he had accounted them, his mind had penetrated to those distances and he had there seen the same pettiness, worldliness, and senselessness. Now, however, he had learned to see the great, eternal, and infinite in everything, and therefore--to see it and enjoy its contemplation--he naturally threw away the telescope through which he had till now gazed over men's heads, and gladly regarded the ever-changing, eternally great, unfathomable, and infinite life around him.

If there is a progress, or a happy and healthy future, to me it sounds something like this.  Like Bezukhov, heaven sounds and feels to me less like the latest, greatest technology, and more like a great big banquet around a table with friends, a walk in the park or on the beach in October, learning something new, a sunset on the lake, some popcorn, fishing with your Dad, or a hug from somebody you love dearly.  The key to a healthy and sincere progress seems to be to remind ourselves of this, of the awe-inducing beauty of the mundane, known, and simple, as the pervasiveness of technology grows every day. 
​
What do you think? 

The Eclipse of Man: Human Extinction and the Meaning of Progress is available for purchase on Amazon.  

Read Next:  10 Ways to Keep Your Knees Healthy Over the Long Haul

If you like this blog, send it on to a friend. 

Back pain is a growing problem.  One of the 4 main reasons your back may hurt is that the underlying structures which support your spine are weak, unengaged, dormant, and stiff, from not being used or stretched. 
 
The 4 main causes of back pain are:
 
1. Not stretching and not doing core exercises.
2. Sitting too much.
3. Lifting improperly.
4. Obesity 
 
Doing 20 minutes of stretching and core exercises every day, or every other day, will eliminate 90% of all back pain.
 
I recently released a new e-book: “20 Minutes to a Better Back and a Stronger Core”, which you can get on my website.  One of the key exercises in the e-book is the bracing exercise.  This exercise is simple:

Kneel, sit down, or sit in a chair with good posture.

• Contract the abdominal wall to the extent where you can feel tension.

 

• Pretend someone is going to punch you in the stomach by creating a “hard” feel in your midsection.

 

• Hold 3 seconds. Repeat 10 times.

 
It’s that simple.  Abdominal muscles get weak over time and lose nerve function. Bracing helps prevent this and it also teaches you to stabilize the spine, both consciously and (crucially) unconsciously, making it stronger in the process. Practice bracing while driving, sitting at a desk, while walking, or anytime for that matter.
 
There are many other great exercises in the e-book. 
Click here to purchase.
 
Check it out or forward it to a friend.

Like the blog?  Please share it with a friend.  

Read Next: A Failure of Nerve 

I was reading about a new popular book out by a Navy Seal Commander called "Make Your Bed" and it brought to mind, several things:

• 1) I've been talking about this for years, so I'm glad someone wrote a book about it.  I try to make up mine every day.


• 2) One of my favorite writers and philosophers is Dr. Jordan Peterson, and he talks about this too.  He says most millennials would do better to change the world by learning to make up their bed than protesting, or getting worked up about politics.

Check out some of Peterson's videos  here:  https://www.youtube.com/user/JordanPetersonVideos

3) "Movement & Meaning" was partially about the same subject- taking simple action to make your life better and getting a little bit of momentum at a time.  

​It also brought to mind some of the research I did on the unconscious mind, and on the work of Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell as I was writing "Movement & Meaning". One of the key discoveries I made is that meaning is not meaning in and of itself.  You can't just say - I want to have meaning and then you'll have it.  You have to get up and actually do something, like exercise, or volunteer, or make your bed, and learn something about the world around you and about yourself.  That's why I pushed hard to just have people get up and go for a walk.  The walk is the only meaning, at least at first.  Once this type of basic independence is achieved, then a greater good and a deeper meaning can be found, perhaps.

That is what this Navy Seal Commander is getting at in "Make Your Bed".  We are exercising our free will in the most basic and elementary way.  Some people have a hard time in even doing this.  Yet, they want to argue about  politics?  Let's start by getting our beds made.  Seriously.

This is an excerpt from "Movement & Meaning" which touches on the same thing:

Our Story

Stories convey emotions.  Emotions inspire us and motivate us into action.  Stories give us a way to make sense of the world.  As unconscious as it may be, the underlying story of movement and exercise is that life means something, which is where the story begins.  We care enough to get up and put on our shoes and move.  We believe and have hope, crossing the void of helplessness and hopelessness, and strengthen the mind and spirit through our movement. 

Consider again the work of story-writing expert Dr. Robert McKee.  McKee teaches in his popular lectures and workshops on “Story” that modern American society has seen the destruction of meaning itself.   The things which Americans looked to for meaning have changed, for better or for worse.   McKee teaches what a meaningful story actually is—a leap of faith, a crucial decision, a change in values, conflict,  spiritual growth, or a crossing of a void into the unknown. 

The protagonist (main character) of a good story tries to do the right thing, or at least what they think is right at the time, no matter the consequences.  McKee’s students, such as Peter Jackson, director of the Lord of The Rings Trilogy, (based on the books by consummate novelist and storyteller J.R.R. Tolkien), have seen huge success because good stories resonate in a culture where traditional forms of meaning have broken down and there is a lingering confusion as to what the purpose of life is.  

Throughout recorded history, some stories or myths have stood the test of time and share common themes.  The Hero with a Thousand Faces, a book by the renowned comparative mythologist and scholar Joseph Campbell, is an extraordinary work, examining and comparing at length the historical commonalities of stories and mythology. 

Many popular modern writers, most notably George Lucas with his hugely successful Star Wars franchise, have been influenced by Campbell’s work.  Surveying geographically disparate cultures thousands of miles apart as well as various cultures at different points in history, Campbell revealed what he called the universal journey of the hero.  All myths, according to Campbell, share a fundamentally similar structure which he calls a monomyth—the hero’s journey. 

In the post-industrial, post-tribal world, where one’s future is largely up to you and you alone, Campbell’s work can be particularly insightful.  Man needs myths, stories, and heroes because a world without stories is a world without meaning. In a well-known quote, Campbell summarizes the monomyth:

“A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.”
-Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces

Throughout history, stories have served many purposes:  to maintain social order, reinforce cultural values, promote spiritual growth and maturity, or to teach moral lessons, often telling us what we already know, but what we need to be reminded of again and again.   We may not always feel like it, but we are all living out a story.  Our story doesn’t have to involve miracles, dragons, or dramatic endings but we all have conflicts, dreams, and challenges.    

Anything meaningful done in life requires commitment to heroic ideals.  You could decide to take this hero’s path Campbell wrote about by practicing the discipline and commitment you develop through exercise in your own life story.  You could give more of yourself to this world.   You aren’t a member of a tribe, stuck in a life you didn’t choose, with a chief telling you what to do.  Ordinary people can have extraordinary virtue and you can be a hero as well. 

 The story for many of us has to change to the most basic of concepts, before we can change the world:

• Acknowledging the free will to act
• Taking and owning your own life, having personal responsibility
• Hygiene basics 
• Getting organized
• Walking every day

These type of things add up quickly!.   Now go make your bed!  

Read Next:  Why I am Writing a Book About Freedom

Over the years since social media started, I admit I've done a mediocre job of using technology to help people through my work. I have acquired a significant following on my blog, and have gotten great feedback on that, and will continue to do that, but I have tended to get too caught up in other things and with concern for the mental and spiritual wellbeing of my fellow citizens and not focus enough on offering specific products to change people's lives. 

That is going to now change quickly. I am getting more tech-savvy in order to be able to help more people by adding digital products. 

The most common form of pain is back pain. I created a Digital product to address this, "20 Minutes to a Stronger Core and a Better Back", based on many years of research and experience in this area, both personally as a competitive weightlifter and as an exercise specialist and health educator. This is an excellent routine.

Also, available are the 2 books I've written.

Click on the link to download the product:
http://www.scottgodwin.net/bookstore--products.html

All movement starts with the spine! We have to be strong, stable, and flexible in the middle or everything else will suffer. 

The spine and the muscles of the back, which often cause us pain, are ALIVE because you are ALIVE. Pain might be temporary and usually is, because the body is ALWAYS changing, for better or worse. Keep hope because your situation might improve faster than you think! I’ve seen it happen many times. 

This 20 minute program is my favorite combination when it comes to relieving back pain. Are there more? Of course. There are an infinite number of exercises for the “core”, or the middle of the body. 

Though I could have chosen 30 or even 50 or more exercises to do for the core, I only chose these 22 because 22 exercises are easy to do in 20 minutes. You can do them any time of day, and on consecutive days.

Enjoy!

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