The following metaphorical story may sound crazy, but I promise I am going somewhere with this. Please stay with me!
Imagine a boy who is given a hammer and made to hit himself in the head with it. Let’s say he is instructed to do this 3-5 times per day. This is a generally accepted and required act of daily living. It is just what everyone does. One of the first things he would need is a good supply of bandages to help stop the continuous bleeding. His head would begin to hurt and he would need to take aspirins or some form of pain killers. These problems persist. Years pass, but he just keeps whacking himself in the head every day.
Eventually a specialist makes him a metal cover for his forehead and a few months later even modifies it with padding to cushion the blows. The specialist is heralded as a genius and wins a Nobel Prize. Yet, this young man still gets headaches because of the thumping. A couple of years later some more specialists come up with a smaller hammer, roughly half of the size of the first one, it’s expensive, but worth the money. This is a great invention and really helps. Nonetheless, as years pass and after all of that pounding, even from the smaller hammer he is becoming dim witted.
A new company has a great solution. They sell you amphetamines to help stimulate your brain. This guy still keeps banging his head with the smaller hammer but is plagued with these problems. Not only that but one arm is twice as muscular as the other because of the constant swinging of the hammer. Another large pharmaceutical company has come out with a wonder drug promising that anyone can hammer more and still live a normal life. Their stock went crazy and they made a fortune. Yet, after a few years on the drugs, he has continual bad side effects and the wonder drugs get pulled from the market.
Over the years, in his continual efforts to improve his situation he tries many programs and even hires people who have a plethora of ideas on how to swing the hammer so it doesn’t hurt you quite as much. These experts also train him on the latest ideas and methods to counter the terrible side effects of perpetually hitting himself in the head. They sell a great deal of programs and get much publicity. He pays a ton of money for these training sessions over the years, but they help very little. Still, every time he tries a new idea, he is convinced it will help because of the testimonials he hears on their commercials and ads. Still, after paying to try them all, none of this stuff ends up working and his suffering continues.
As decades pass, he has developed terrible rashes and skin problems from the countless metal head protectors and the padding, open sores envelope his head. He is also required to wear a neck brace due to the constant pounding. Unfortunately, over the years this has resulted in a chronic sore back. He is forced to increase the doses of pain killers, anti-depressants, anti-inflammatory, and antibiotic drugs and experiences all of their nasty side effects. So he takes more drugs to counter those side effects. Finally, he is forced to use a wheelchair. Still, he keeps his banging his head with the hammer every day. The small hammer was a life saver, though. He probably wouldn’t even be here without it; worth every penny, saved his life.
A couple of years in the wheelchair and his situation has resulted in one final option – brain surgery. It’s just something he must do. Thank God he paid for only the best health care during his working years and can afford it. His family must of course endure this along with him. The surgery goes well. In the recovery room he continues to bang his head with the hammer. Unfortunately, he will be bed ridden for the rest of his life. He is so ill that for weeks at a time the nurses must bang him in the head with the hammer as he is at times too weak to do it himself.
This poor guy lives two more years in absolute pain and discomfort. He must take a plethora of drugs and has little quality of life. His family goes along for the entire unpleasant ride. Unfortunately, they had to mortgage the house they live in to pay for the last year of his life in the hospital. Turns out the medical insurance only covered the surgery and one year of care. Insurance coverage has risen immensely, since over two thirds of the population (and growing fast) are now stricken with the same hammer-banging related expensive health problems. He dies in bed, exactly 17 minutes after the final bang in the head he gives himself. Only then does the hammering stop.
If you think this story is ridiculous, I heartily agree. If there is any real difference between the daily hammering and our daily intake of modern food that has been proven dangerous to our health I would love to hear it. We have been marketed, socialized and fooled into eating dangerous, unhealthy and sick food. The analogy I have made regarding this entire process may seem oversimplified, facetious and quite insane. I stand by it anyways. In fact, I openly invite any criticism of it not being directly analogous to our current, ridiculous predicament. Just like the crazy example of a guy smashing himself in the head with a hammer every day, the modern food we eat relentlessly punishes our bodies with horrible consequences – yet we continue.
Obesity, diabetes, heart disease, heart disease, and hundreds of other maladies plague us at an ever increasing rate. The physical, psychological and monetary costs are unimaginable. Yet we continue when the problem and the solution are as easily identified as in the hammer story I just presented.
Really, think about it. This is just how ludicrous and bizarre our situation has become. Ants, rabbits and squirrels are smart enough not to purposely eat themselves into horribly debilitating illnesses and often death. As a society, we are so “smart” we have figured out how to deliberately and at immense cost to ourselves, our environment and fellow animals create and eat food that makes us chronically ill and kills us.