Man has pondered and pined on about the subject of aging for Millennia.  It’s not always pleasant to think about dying but we will all grow older.  Where I grew up in North Alabama, there is a picturesque state park called DeSoto State Park, with waterfalls and nice hiking trails.  Hernando de Soto, the park’s Spanish conquistador namesake was also famous for searching for a reputed fountain of youth in the southern US during his time there in the 1500s.  Though he never found a fountain to cure his inevitable physical decline, as little as 500 years ago when DeSoto and his men were adventuring through the woods of Alabama, most of European civilization still thought such a thing actually existed.
 
Methuselah was the Hebrew man purported by the Bible to have lived for 969 years, though Jewish Biblical apologists explain this to be an incorrect interpretation and say this famous aged one only lived to be 78.  In Hinduism, Bhishma is commonly thought to have lived to an advanced age and is a metaphor for immortality.  Many in the Roman Empire records purportedly lived to be over 100.  Maybe even in the ancient Roman Empire, the slow atmosphere, warm sun, Mediterranean diet, and relaxing evenings sipping the wine of Italy eased the stresses of aging and allowed the Italians to live a bit longer, as they still do now. 
 
Most of us want to live longer.  This is pretty commonly safe to assume unless someone is suffering greatly, which happens, and which I have personally witnessed and is heartbreaking.  I personally would like to live to be 90-95 if I’m relatively healthy and can still be active in my 80s.  Who knows when my time will come to leave this world, but that would be a long life and a great gift.   I have no urge to live forever but 90-95 would be a reasonable goal.
 
A friend recently gave me quite an impressive book called “How Not to Die” by Dr. Michael Greger.  It is an impressively cited and exhaustive work on a whole host of health issues which cause problems such as heart disease, cancer, neurological disease, and mental illnesses.  As I read through this 559 page tome, it reminded me how interrelated and causal our small decisions are to our longevity.  Physical fitness and nutrition affect mental health and organ health and the immune system and vice versa.  Small decisions over a lifetime make a HUGE difference.  Dr. Greger is a strong advocate for eating less animal products, and as unpopular as this might be to my readers, I mostly agree.  A plant-based diet has been proven time and time again to result in fewer diseases.
 
That being said, I personally am not planning on not eating meat, but that doesn’t mean I can’t and won’t eat less.
 
Here are some simple suggestions, based on my years of scientific research on the topic, on how to live longer in a scientifically proven way:

• Eat less.  The strongest way to increase longevity is to actually exist in a slight state of mild starvation throughout your life.  This doesn’t mean you need to feel bad, but it is ok to not stuff yourself.  Train yourself to go without and your stomach will shrink.  Fast to build your self-discipline.  Fasting seems also to “mop-up” problematic cellular damage.

• Eat a plant-based diet.  This means that you should base you diet around vegetables, fruits, rice, grains, nuts, seeds, and non-animal products.  Long term research has shown this to be the healthiest way to eat and you will have less disease.

• Limit intake of meat and dairy.  I like meat and dairy as much as the next person, but a palm-size serving a day is really plenty for most people. If you use a protein supplement, opt for a vegetable – based one, although Soy may not be your best option because of its estrogen effects.  You might decide to go vegetarian, which I can respect.

• Live in community.  I write about this quite a bit, so this should come as no shock.  The places in the world where people live the longest are also the places where people are closest in community.  We, on the other hand in America live in a type of negative community, by where we purposely create walls from each other and reduce all relationships to economic transactions.  There is no longer a sense of communion, driving the individual out of himself, making the inner serviceable to the outer.  Membership has few obligations, only “rights” by which we demand the government and other people do things for us.   A good community asks something of us and demands character.   This is real community. 

• Seek out the transcendent.   Think about and act on what you will leave behind for your family and community. Meditate and pray and contemplate.

• Avoid the biggest stressors. Negative, destructive relationships, debt, long commutes, consumerism and status obsession, media, and social isolation. Situations where you have a lot of responsibility but no control, or authority to act are some of the worst.  (See modern day policing or public school teaching or many other types of bureaucratic jobs).

• Exercise.  30 Minutes per day. Keep it simple.  Stretch. Lift. Walk. Play. Repeat. 

• Health care.  Have a good doctor, get second opinions, and make sure you get your Vitamin D checked and a flu shot if you are older.

 
If you do these things, there is a good chance you will live a long time.
You can repay me by taking me out for Chinese! Steamed stir fry of course.
 
Sources: How Not To Die, by Michael Gerger, M.D., The Art of Aging, Integrative Medicine by Dr. Andrew Weil
 
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What is the best way to lose weight around the middle?
 
For men, this is a problem but it can be done.  It is very very difficult to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time, so I would focus on one or the other.    You have to restrict calories, that is the key.  I chuckle every time someone brings me a new diet book.  I’ve seen it all and read it all when it comes to food.  Women need to realize that it’s going to be harder for them for many reasons: slower metabolism, less testosterone, less tolerance for intense exercise, and the tendency to eat emotionally is more common in women.  Plus, men store fat around the waist, which is easier to break down and use as energy.  Women store fat more around the hips, and this kind of fat is very resistant to change.  But it can be done.  Severe cases call for extreme  measures.

• In general, processed food whether it is sugar or animal products or carbs are what you want to avoid.
• You have to use a food log.  No excuses.
• Intermittent fasting: Train yourself to go without

 
Why are so many people stressed out and taking anti-anxiety and anti-depressive medicines?
 
We live in a shallow, meaningless culture, and people make up for by making idols of various things-money, sex, romance, entertainment, travel, education, you name it.  Eventually these idols start to consume people and they become disordered individuals.  Traditional values like God, family, friendship, achievement, and community are what make people happy and healthy individual adults.

Here in the US we are all essentially living alone, even if we live with other people.  We live in these great big houses.  We’ve been brainwashed and we have too much stuff, too much materialism.  I mean look at my house.  It’s probably 1500-200 square feet and even though I have another renter living here, it is huge by worldwide standards.  I have rooms and a yard I don’t need and don’t use.  Multiply this by 400 million people.   And there is the constant pressure to upgrade, more and more.
 
If you buy this house, and buy that brand, and have the job, you will be “successful”. But what the hell does that mean?  It’s a joke, a sad joke that so many people have bought into.  You can hear it in the music, and the constant advertising.  No wonder people are miserable.  Our only identity is consumption. 
 
But there is that standard.  Consumerism is all we have left.  Brands- Mercedes, Gucci, or the latest restaurant you name it.  We are consumers in America and that is it.  But it’s a big black hole, an empty hole.  We consume and we want choice.  We want to be “liberated” of everything, our genders, our families, and basically our humanity.  The word “trans”, or “beyond” is where we’re heading.  We are beyond human, basically sick versions of our former selves and we don’t even realize it. 
 
And these drug companies make billions of dollars per year convincing us that it’s not our environments and our social lives that are making us sick.    You can never separate the seed from the soil.  We never look at the soil.  Our seeds are sick and dying because the soil is contaminated.    People are stressed out because they never have enough and never are good enough, and people are depressed because all sources of identity other than as a consumer have been hollowed out.  There are other reasons but this is the main reason in my humble opinion.

Why did you become more interested in religion and theology?
 
Good question but a big question.  They say “Where psychology ends, theology begins.”  This is most certainly true and I have experienced that.  As I was researching and writing my book about mental health and exercise this became very clear to me.  I started to notice while writing that all goals related to health and fitness were utilitarian in nature which basically meant they were all about achieving some random number.  But the number was empty and didn’t mean anything.  For example, to weigh 180 pounds, bench press 250, wear a size 6 or a 34 inch waist, get your cholesterol below 200, etc.  The more I thought about it, the less this made sense.  What about my grandpa, who never did any formal exercise and drank coke every day?  He was still healthy.  What about an inspirational figure like Churchill who drank tons of alcohol and was depressed a lot?  I would still say he lived a healthy life because he lived a meaningful life.
 
Science can tell you many things, but it was never meant to be an ends in and of itself.  Theology is called the queen of the sciences, and it is also highly related to philosophy.  Science can never tell you what is true about human meaning or the meaning of life, and it can never tell you what is good either.   We need a narrative to in order to know what is good.  There is this false idea in our culture that you cannot be a person of great faith and a person of science also.  It took me a long time to reconcile the two.   
 
I learned as an adult to appreciate religion and the Bible specifically as divinely inspired but also not as something that is always meant to be interpreted literally.  Fundamentalist religion gets this backward: it plays down some of the deeper spirituality and narrative and promotes a literal 6-day chronological creation story (among other literal interpretation of scriptures) which in my opinion takes away from the true meanings which God wanted us to understand or at least this type of teaching makes it hard for moderns like us to accept any type of faith at all as a result when we’re confronted with this.  
 
For example, maybe the earth was created in a literal 6 days but more than likely the early Jewish believers were passing down oral stories which told a moral truth.  Not how many days, but the narrative of who am I?  Why am I here?  What is my place in this world?  God tells us these things and this part is 110% true.   I could go on about this but you get my point.  Some parts, like the 2 greatest commandments of loving God and others with all your heart, soul, and mind, and loving others as yourself should be interpreted as literal passages but some should not.  This confusion has made it hard for many scientists and rational people like me in general to believe in the God of religion.
 
Plus, our society is overly rational anyway.  The creator can never be explained completely with human language because language itself is metaphorical, is distinctive, and dualistic.  Chesterton was a master at explaining this.  God is beyond distinction or duality and is partly paradoxical, which is where the New Testament teaching of the “Lion and the Lamb” comes from.  At some point we will all have to answer some deep questions and have faith in something.  We will all have to “frame” the world and try to make sense of it.  I studied science for years, biology, evolution, physics, you name it.  God made the most sense to me. I was focused in most of my adult life on mental health and physical health, but I neglected my spiritual health.
 
I had encouragement from my friend Todd who urged me to get my spiritual life in order and I read a book called “The Rage Against God” which was hugely influential and I think describes where we are as a culture.  At least it is where I was.  People have this anger and rage against God, because of misplaced pride, which is another thing.   We want to believe but we can’t because the world has lost its magic and its enchantment.  Pride is the root of all evil.  The opposite of pride is humility.  To me, the essence of understanding God can be boiled down to pride vs. humility.  Solomon writes about this in the Old Testament.  When I re-read the story of the prodigal son in “The Rage Against God”, it helped me understand who I was, who we all are- children of a loving creator who is waiting on us to come home.  Coming home is about humility.  All knowledge starts with humility.  
 
Also, I found an Anglo-Catholic church near my house and and they’ve been a real blessing.   They focus on the first councils and the teachings of the church fathers, who were amazing and left us a treasure trove of inspired spiritual depth and the sacraments.   This idea that a man can save himself by deciding at a single point in time to follow God, like you see in the evangelical circles, though I am not doubting that it happens for some people, is just not accurate for most people.  Following God and “being saved” is more like the story of the prodigal son, or that is how I understand it.  To be with God, we need to be with God, humble and involved in a faith community, experience God, confessing when we go wrong, and admitting our faults, and worshipping together. 
 
For me, I was always a deeply spiritual person, but the faith tradition that I grew up with never completely resonated with me because it was constantly changing and it was not orthodox enough or connected enough to the universal historic church.  At some point Protestantism morphed into a self-help thing in some cases or an entertainment thing in others, constantly changing and quite effeminate in some cases, which never set right with me either.  It became more about what pleased us than worship.  I respect and love my parents dearly who still practice their faith, and do so sincerely, and I respect the many others who do, but it was something that never seemed like the right way for me, possibly because they don’t take communion frequently like the traditional church does.  Again, they are people of great faith whom I admire and who made me who I am and who are probably better people than me, but the tradition itself was not enough (especially some of the more puritanical ideas about alcohol).
 
I see signs that many different branches of Christianity may be turning back to traditional beliefs and practices and I think this is a good thing.  The Eastern Orthodox Church has a lot to teach us in the West as well, particularly in our culture of excess.  It is based on asceticism, fasting, quietness, meditation, and soberness versus emotionality.   It is focused deeply on tradition.  They teach, and Anglicanism teaches this too, that you have to experience God, and not just rationalize God, though of course there is a rational component to doctrine.  So in traditional Christianity, whether it is in the Eucharist (the Communion) or when we are praying, God is actually with us, really with us in the physical and spiritual world.  This can change your life.        

One of the great philosophers wrote that the idea of God causes two responses: awe, and dread.  Some people draw near and some people are repulsed.  I was always that one who wanted to draw near, and I've always been in awe, but I can understand both points of view.  Even to be alive is amazing enough and sometimes it is dreadful.  
 
Look at Yoga.  The Yoga self-help industry has totally cornered the market on meditation, which is a tragedy.  As I studied the early church history, I found this great treasure of Eastern Christian meditation on the nature of God, the nature of reality really.  The Christian teaching is that God is love, and meditation needs to be and can be focused on this.  Christians can and should meditate I discovered.  So meditation is a great example of how disincarnate and how disconnected Christian spirituality and practice has become in the US and the west.  It has also sadly lost its connection to a vertical community of ancestors and its great history of wisdom and teaching from the fathers.  Instead we get charismatic TV preachers, and rock bands. 
 
We need to reconnect to the tenets of traditional life, to be closer to God and to each other, to be in real communion.   Then there is also the great community, both the community of the past, as well as the horizontal faith community we live in now, our neighbors, which can allow us to be part of something bigger than ourselves.    The church offers something modernity cannot: traditional practices connecting us to God, and buffering against rampant narcissism through real community. 
 
As Phillip Rieff said in “Triumph of the Therapeutic: Uses of Faith after Freud”
 
“Religious man was born to be saved.  Psychological man is born to be pleased.”
 
I don’t want to be the psychological man.   I want to live a good life and I want to know the truth and live by it. 
 
The world is hurting and I want to help.  I really do care about people and I want them to be healthy and live a meaningful life.   “Healthy” comes from the word “healing” and that is what we need, to be made whole.  We don’t want food, excess, alcohol, drugs, money, greed, gluttony, and other things to destroy us.  The more I studied “Health”, the more theology made sense.  Why are we here? Why are we exercising?  God creates wholeness out of chaos in our lives as long as we don’t make idols and God really can give us the peace and grace to really live, and that is why humbling ourselves is a good thing.  Dante’s Inferno covered this better than I ever could 700 year ago, but I am planning on introducing theology into my writing when it’s appropriate. 
 
I really want to focus in my writing on helping people be healthier and know the truth.  God undeniably plays a role in this.  I stress tradition and religion though, versus self-help Gurus and creating religion in our own image, because often we really do need to change and become better people.   Aristotle was certainly onto something when he left us his pre-Christian idea of the “telos”- we have something in our nature that we are intended for, we have an end we should be striving for, and it involves why we were created and it is healthy to become who we were fully intended to be. 
 
We need to be better, which is something that you don’t even hear people talk about anymore.  People used to confess what they did wrong and try to do better, and now people take a medication but never try to change.  There’s something inherently wrong with that.   But we also need to always be watchful for fanaticism and hate and overly repressive forms of culture.  I think there is something bubbling under the surface hopefully where people will wake up, spiritually.  What started with me trying to help people with mental health by having them exercise more ended with something deeper.   But that is how life works if you open yourself to it.  I have hope.  I choose to.
 
What is the single best exercise to do getting and staying in shape?
 
It’s hard to pick just one but I would say walking, run/walking, running, mixed with a few basic weight training exercises like squats or deadlifts and some upper body rows and presses / push-ups.  We need to get on the ground and stretch more too as we age. So basically:

• Walk / Run – Walk / or Run Every Day
• Weight Training – Squats, Deadlifts, Rows, Presses or Push-Ups 2-3 Days per week
• Get on the floor and stretch every day

 
That’s it. I know it’s not just one but it’s hard to say just one.  Walking is the most important, and keeping your weight low. 
 
Why do I feel stiffer and tighter as I get older?

Our bodies certainly change over time, but we also tend to do less.   We sit more, we don’t move as much.  Our joints get stiff and our posture changes. 
 
As we age, the keys I have noticed to staying fit are:

• Warming Up More
• Using soft tissue rolling or massage or stretching pretty much every day
• Jump and Sprint
• Lifting Weights
• Avoiding High Blood Sugar Producing Foods
  
  

So we will do that again sometime again soon.  This was a “stream of consciousness” post but it is fun to put into words what people ask me about. 
 
Have a great week!
Scott

Have you ever had days where you did not want to get up?  I can honestly say that it's rare for me, but naturally being more of a night person it used to be hard for me to get up, because I get up very early to work with clients and patients.  Over the time though, when the alarm clock goes off you get up. All of us know that kid who had irresponsible parents, or soft parents, who let them do whatever they want.  Usually it's reflected in grades, behavior, and outcomes.  Young people need structure and rules and the more living I do, the more I realize we need it even as adults and throughout our lives.  

Some of us can create our own structures which take the form of commitments we make to ourselves.  Some of us need the help of a social environment to become who we want to and achieve what we want to.  Most of us need a little of both, an ethical, moral and philosophical code of  living of our own choosing which enables us to become who we want to, and the support of a social world which pushes us to live up to the standards we set for ourselves and to live a meaningful, healthy, life.   

Structure becomes what you eventually do naturally.   

The alarm clock gives you structure and forms you into someone who is dependable and on time.  I use two alarms just in case.  One thing I really observed from being in the military was how quickly it changes people into someone else.  Young men who could not run very far or who had never gotten up early before or could not pay attention all of a sudden had to, and so they adapted and became what the Army calls "high-speed". 

We adapt to our surroundings, positive or negative, constructive or destructive. 

If we are around negative and unhealthy people, then we become this way too.  Our environment has an effect on us.  For example, Wal-Mart gives me a headache- the noise, the lighting, the unhappy workers, the lack of pleasant surroundings.  If we are around things that bring us down, we will adapt and the structure will probably bring us down. This is common sense, but it is also something we forget quite easily.   

Our surrounding structures shape us into who we become at the end of our life. 

Mentally, if we listen to negative things on the radio or on TV, we will have negative emotions.  If we think about sad things, we may get sad.  If we worry and obsess, we will have a hard time deconstructing our situation to see the positive.  What we think about can affect our physical health.  Worry is a pattern in the brain, an anatomical pattern.  It's a structural habit which is "grooved" into the brain.  Depression is like this too. 

Our brain adapts to the structural habits we allow it to be formed by- our obsessions, dispositions, attitudes, thoughts, self-awareness and sense of gratefulness or ungratefulness.    

Our physical bodies change and modify themselves according to the environments we put them in.  Exposure to the sun will damage the skin and cause sunspots.  Strength training builds muscle.  Aerobic exercise creates a more efficient heart and lungs.  Being around second hand smoke is polluting and carcinogenic. Being around a disordered, loud, and chaotic physical environment can cause mental and emotional health challenges.  We adapt physically to our surroundings.   

The physical structures we expose ourselves to cause changes in us, for the better and  for the worse depending on what they are. 

The Ultimate Question is This: 

How can we put structures in place which make us healthy and help us become who we want to become? 

Our souls and spirits are shaped by laws we give ourselves and by our purpose in life.   If it is to make lots of excess money at any cost, we may allow this structural goal to shape us into someone we don't like.   In this example, there's nothing wrong with money per se, but how we approach it might shape us if we don't have structures in place which give us a balanced perspective to life where the mental, material, physical, emotional, and spiritual all work together. We all know that person who has gone down the road of trying to make an undefined amount of money and never seems to have enough.  That's a sucker's game.   The structure of an undefined goal of more material wealth is a downward spiral to misery.  

We also know the person who seems to have inner peace, happiness, good friendships and close family ties, rewarding work, and interesting hobbies.  Somehow they have life figured out, or so it seems.   

It could be that the structures they have in place allow them to succeed "automatically."
All they have to do is show up! 

The laws we give ourselves form a structure and shape us and we change and want to stay within this framework because it allows us to thrive and be in harmony with others, with God, and what we're capable of doing.   Also, we can consciously change this structure so that we adapt and grow and garner inner resources of resilience to become stronger.   Maybe we take on a public speaking gig, a leadership role, a family, or we commit to climb a mountain. 

The bottom line is that we need to be aware. 

We need to realize which structures are shaping us.   

Via Negativa 

One of my favorite principles is via negativa.  What was originally a theological concept and involved describing who God was by describing who God was not, became a philosophical concept which Ancient Greeks used in medicine and in living better.  Via Negativa means taking things away.  In general this is a wise structural concept.  If you feel like you could be healthier, take things away and see if you are.

This is similar to the "Pareto Principle": 80% of the good things in your life come from 20% of the things in your life, and vice versa when it comes to the negative.  Maybe it will be an app on your phone, carbohydrates, a nagging relationship, excessive alcohol, or social games you don't want to play anymore.  Regardless, try taking away structures first, via negativa. 

Here are some other suggestions for becoming aware of and using structure: 

Via Negativa- carbs, alcohol, TV, emotional vampires, naggers, club memberships, pretense, debt, media, etc.  

Daily Exercise-commit to this and let it shape you. 

Mentors- meet once a week with a spiritual guide or counselor in a religious or work setting. 

A Code- Decide what you will or won't do ahead of time.  For me, it's cheating, lying, the 10 Commandments, pretending to like someone I don't like.  Never be cruel.  I have my code I stick by and I suggest you do too.

Mornings- Get up and make your bed.  Organize what you're going to do.  Say 5 things you are thankful for every day.   

Balanced Meals- Never eat just carbs alone, which will spike your blood sugar big time.  Combine foods. 

Clothing- Try to dress as good or better than most people in a business or social environment, without being pretentious.  It shows you care and can be trusted. This is a good structure. 

Join / Sign Up / Commit- Join the group, or pay for the class so you will follow through. 

Social Environments and Friendships- It's amazing how difficult some people find it to be happy for others.  Real love and friendship is not controlling, demeaning, or jealous.  Celebrate your friends accomplishments and successes.  Only associate with positive people.  Your social environment is a big deal and will give you the structure you need to be healthy, but it can also bring you down. 

Family- I'm a big believer in family.  You were born into a family and you can never change that.  That being said, some families are EXTREMELY dysfunctional.  Some parents are jealous of their kids.  Some kids are not appreciative of their parents.  Some siblings have rivalries.  Be humble but set boundaries.  Love your family, but don't allow shame viruses spread to you.  If you need to you can move far away, in the case of abuse or something like that.  I do think you have a responsibility to your family.  But you also have a responsibility to be yourself and say what you think, with respect.  Your family can be one of the best structures to give your life meaning, joy, and happiness, but it needs to be handled carefully.  You need to think about giving more than taking, like most things.  Many families stay together and this is the most important part of their lives- it is their life. 

Jobs - Sometimes, you need a job that gives you structure.  To do what I do requires a huge amount of self-discipline, because I do all of my own selling and marketing and service.  I have not earned a paycheck from an employer in my post-college adult life.  Most people need the structure of a job to become better though because otherwise you have to be completely self-motivated.  Look for a trade or organization which will allow you to succeed.  The military is a perfect option for many people, because it gives them the structure to have a good life.   

And….finally…..Don't Forget Anti-Structure 

Sometimes, we need some controlled chaos, or what GK Chesterton called "legitimate foolishness."  If we don't plan for it, and allow it to happen, it will come out anyway and probably in a negative way- in the way of crime, movies, and disturbing forms of art.  Traditional society used to have this "Anti-structure" built into it in the form of festivals and fairs and parades, but since we are moving further and further away from tradition we have to be always mindful of our need to be free and wild in a controlled way at times.   

I've always been a fan of New Orleans.  From the very first time I went there, I loved it.  Not that I never overdid it on the revelry, because I certainly did, but it was more than that.  The "Laissez Faire" or "Big Easy" attitude of New Orleans is something we are missing in our lives.  We need characters and fun, and silliness at times.  We work hard, almost 24/7 it seems, and we never take the time to let the pressure off.  I'm not saying we need to go crazy, but we need to find healthy ways to blow off steam.  Here are some of my favorites: 

• Weekend retreats  
• Talk to a random stranger 
• Concerts 
• Swimming at Night 
• Moderate Alchohol  
• Parades 
• Charades and impersonations 
• Family traditions 
• Dancing 
• Singing 
• Religious Worship 
• Holidays 
• Physical Intimacy 
• Walking and exploring a city with no plan in mind 
• Theatre / Movies 
• Technology Breaks 
• Friendships / Relationships 
• Sports 
• Stay up All Night 
• Look at the Stars 
• Intense Exercise 
• Nature 
  
• Music 
  

Set up structures in your life that help you, and allow you to live healthy and live free.  They will push you, keep you on the right path, and ultimately bring you joy.   
 
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Movement & Meaning is the powerful story of mental health and exercise
Healthy Work will help you find health and meaning in and through your work. 

“Life is hard when you live it the easy way, and easy when you live it the hard way.” –Unknown
 
Dave, 42, lives and works near the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.  His 2nd wife Lisa works across the street at Bally’s.  The two leave their kids in the Bally’s childcare center after work so they can spend some time at the slot machines.  Sometimes they win, most times they don’t.  About 7 pm or so, they head home to their apartment and repeat the same pattern day after day in 8-9 hour shifts at the casino, a few hours gambling and eating at the buffet, and then heading home to watch TV a few hours and maybe help their kids with homework.  Repeat.  Repeat. Repeat. 
 
This is freedom....
 
Mary, 33, wants to better her career opportunities and job skills so she can make some money but she spends too much time online.  Unfortunately between Facebook, Instagram, Tinder, Cosmo and HuffPo articles, she doesn’t have any free time to pursue her education and career development, even though there are many free courses available online.  She also wants to lose some weight, but it’s so hard to not swing by the pizza place, or burrito or cupcake place for an easy meal after work.  And those places are so cheap too.
 
This is freedom....
 
Jimmy, 51 and single for over 10 years since his wife died, wants to start dating again but can’t seem to get motivated.  He wants to find a quality woman, partially to help him raise his 3 kids but he spends his minimal free time at the strip club as a regular, flirting with the dancers instead.  It’s so much easier than trying to date since it’s on the way home.   And it’s kind of fun too.  Maybe it’s the antidepressants he’s taking but he just doesn’t feel like dating. 
 
This is freedom....
 
Chanice, 22, already has $34,000 in student loans but can’t stand that she’s the worst dressed of her group of girlfriends.   Plus, she loves to shop! It’s “who she is” and makes her feel so good.  She loves the seasonal dresses at BEBE and getting her hair and nails done at a nice salon.  So instead of decreasing her debt, she keeps increasing it via credit cards.  At an interest rate of 8.9%, she will get that debt paid off when she’s 42. 
 
This is freedom....
 
Sylvia, who just turned 30, got her 5th tattoo this week and it turned out well.  It’s a snake that wraps around her neck.  It only cost her $500.  Sylvia’s parents are divorced since she was 7, and neither are very involved and never gave her much attention so these tattoos give her that sense of permanence and uniqueness.   Her 8 piercings help with that too, especially the one in her nose that everyone looks at and some people ask about in curiosity.  For some reason, she can’t seem to get a better job than the waitressing job she’s had for 6 years now.  
 
This is freedom....
              
Johnny, who just turned 30, wants a better job, a better social life and wants to lose weight.  Johnny wants to be a more caring and giving person.  Johnny wants to live a life that matters.  He wants to buy a house.  Johnny wants to travel and to be involved in interesting things.  But Johnny can’t seem to do anything that he wants to do.  Instead he’s hooked on video games and drinking.  He has no savings, no motivation, and takes no real action.  He goes to work, comes home, and continues on, “free” to do what he “wants” to do, at least in the moment. 
 
This is freedom?

 What is Freedom?
 
These are cases of the type of contrived “freedom” we live with on a daily basis.  We know these people because they are us to a certain extent.  It’s either laugh or cry.  The problem is that these situations aren’t healthy.    The even bigger problem is that when these people are people we know and love and care about, or it's going through this, we aren’t allowed to “judge” these people or ourselves because that would be wrong, according to the culture we live in of liberating non-judgement.  The truth is that these people are not really free, nor are we, and we never will be completely.  As the philosopher Alisdair Macyntire famously stated: “A man without a culture is a myth.”
 
What is real freedom? What does it mean? Let's take a closer look.  Freedom obviously doesn’t mean freedom from any responsibility because we will always have responsibility in one way or another.   We have to stop at stop signs, we have to eat, and we have to wear clothing in public.  There will always be things we are required to do and not do.  One of the freest people I know is in a successful marriage, successful business, has 3 happy children, and has many hobbies he's good at.  He is fully committed and he is also free.   How is that possible?  That is true because my friend has what is called positive freedom.  My friend has the freedom to be but also to become.   He is free because he is actually doing what he really wants to do.  My friend has agency and power.
 
Positive freedom (the freedom to do things and become something) and negative freedom (freedom from certain things) are both important:
 
Positive freedom gives us the freedom to act, or agency, the ability to act.
 
Negative freedom is liberty in which we are not enslaved by human forces.
 
“Happiness is the feeling of power increasing.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
 
The United States was an idea founded on Enlightenment principles of liberation.  We wanted freedom from authority, from repression, from taxation without representation, from religious or cultural norms and we got it.  We’ve done a good job at building negative freedom in America.   We should celebrate this.   We have removed the cultural repression of roles (for better or worse), but in the process we also made it harder for most people to develop positive freedom.   What started as a revolution against political authority has ended up as a rejection of all authority.
 
Ironically, we rejected all forms of authority but it is now harder to become who we really want to because we have so much individualism and so little community that it is difficult for people to succeed and form into a healthy, virtuous, successful and mature adult.   Even worse, from a health stand point, from an economics standpoint, and from a cultural standpoint, too much focus on negative freedom, freedom from interference with our own autonomous  world has left the door open for us to develop into population controlled by impersonal market forces which are actually leaving us unhealthy, particularly the poorest among us. 
 
Cultural liberation since the 1960s in the US, no matter how well-intentioned, has in effect become an implicit war on poor people as they have become less healthy and have stagnated culturally at a high rate.  There’s more obesity, more diabetes, more drug and alcohol abuse, more children born out of wedlock, and stagnating levels of high poverty and poor education.  Cultural liberalism moving us towards negative freedom has had the most detrimental effect in the poorest communities.  More welfare and more money and more freedom has led to more misery and more confusion and more anger from the lower classes.  Trillions have been spent since 1964, with basically nothing to show for it.  If anything, things have gotten worse in those communities- just read the newspaper.

The Challenge is the Opportunity
 
“If you don’t boast about your house, it will fall down and hit you.” – Greek Proverb
 
So this is the challenge: We like our freedom. We don’t like being told what to do.  We are a nation of individuals.  Trust me.  I’m as individualistic as anyone.  But this is not a complete picture of true freedom.   This is not what a healthy person or a healthy society looks like.  A culture with only negative freedom creates a nation of narcissists who never sign up, volunteer, appreciate, work, and who are never humble enough to listen, to learn, and to improve and participate.    We need a balance of individualism and community. 
 
I’m not arguing for repressive or paternal politics.  If anything, I am arguing for a real and open debate about what it takes to truly build a thriving society, something no one seems willing to do right now.   The left says the problem in America is structural inequality and the right says our biggest problem is cultural digression.  I believe that they are connected.
 
Cultural digression, which statistically started in the 1960s is causing and reinforcing structural inequality.   As clear evidence to what I’m talking about, consider this.  Elite liberals of the left usually live very conservative personal lives while at the same time advocating disrespect for authority and undermining the authoritative role of cultural institutions in building up a healthy and free society, which in turn only exacerbates cultural, wealth, and health inequalities which make it harder for the lower classes to advance.   Liberating cultural influences implicitly act as an attack on the poor.  In sum, the failure of American politics, left and right, is the failure of either side to clearly identify this problem and clearly define what a thriving and healthy society looks like and to have the fortitude and courage towards pushing this vision. 
 
The biggest question then is this: 
 
How can we live in relative Shalom, in peace and harmony? 
How can we live with Ikigai, a reason for being? 
 
In my vision, the only way forward is to call a truce, maintain reasonable amounts of negative freedom, and then voluntarily participate in and strengthen the communal institutions by which people can truly become positively free.  I’ve included a list, by no means exhaustive, of the institutions by which health is actually built in the real world and some questions prodding us in a new sirection.    

• Family- How can we strengthen families? Children do better with a father and mother.  This is a proven fact.  How can we push back and start to expect this? Divorce is much lower in the upper classes which gives their children an advantage in education and economics.  An ethic of status- conscious consumerism hurts families.  How can we push back and create a more ascetic society focused on virtue versus consumption?
• Religion- Religion, when on guard and vigilant against fanaticism, is largely about wisdom, transcendence, and healthy repression.  How can we leave religious institutions alone so that they can thrive and assist in building a healthy and wise culture in which people become free?
• Civic- Civic involvement is essential to a free society.  Which groups are essential to our community? How can we support them?
• Schools- Why is there so little discipline and respect for authority in public schools, particularly in disadvantaged neighborhoods?  Learning and advancement cannot take place in this environment.  How can we change this?
• Sports- Sports teach grit and self-discipline. What sports can we play and encourage our kids to play, which build fitness and character? 
• Government- Where can we find opportunities to reform and participate in government? How can we see government as an ally, instead of an enemy?
• Military- What are the opportunities for our young people to serve, and when they are done serving how can we help them readjust? How can we teach military values of loyalty, duty, respect, and service, to the general public?  How can we inspire patriotism in all citizens?
• Trade / Craft Guilds- Should we be sending all students to college when trade work is highly paid, and in demand?  The apprenticeship was a way of life for millions of people all over the world for a long time.  How can we bring back the mentor and the teacher as a path towards meaningful work?
• Hobbies- What hobbies can we commit to doing which will make us better and healthier people? Fitness?  Woodworking?  Motorcycling? Piano?
• Physical Activity- How can we incorporate physical activity into our daily lives and into our communities, particularly if it is done outdoors?  Why are our parks rarely used and who is in charge of keeping them up?  Nature is real and has a mind of its own and it turn is a buffer towards the type of autistic representation of reality (casinos slot machines, video games, etc. ) we discussed in the article.  
• Arts- Can we support music, museums, and writing?  Are these things we should be doing as hobbies?  These are activities which build a healthy culture. 

 
"Society is not just individuals and government, but everything that happens in between.”  -Yuval Levin
 
Finally, if you don’t like the way these institutions are run or the way they do things, you don’t have the negative freedom to change them into your own image, but you can join another organization or start another one that is more to your liking if you want.  When we start recreating our institutions in our own image, instead of allowing our institutions to shape us into a vertical community existing throughout time in an ongoing conversation with our ancestors (such as in schools, churches, or trades), we’re in trouble, because the institution will in effect soon no longer exist, at least in its previous form. 

We know what works and what doesn’t.  A focus on building community health through institutions is a plan that would work. 

The challenge is also the opportunity.  We have freedom within reach but this a challenge for us to grasp and we need to take action.  It’s time to build positive freedom.  It’s time to allow our institutions and disciplines to shape us to become more powerful, so we can really be free.  

Read Next: On Friendship

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Suggested Reading: The World Beyond Your Head by Mathew Crawford, Our Fractured Republic by Yuval Levin