Economist

Health and the Oeconomicus

By John Taylor; 2007 August 18

If you compare the environmental impact of a troglodyte of twenty thousand years ago to that of the average human today, by some estimates the latter inflicts thousands of times more harm than the former. We think of Stone Age technology as inferior but if we truly were more technically advanced than them surely this would be reversed. Our impact on nature would be thousands of times less than in pre-history, not more. The fact is that in spite of our vaunted technical advancement, we live in an excruciatingly uncreative era. Pound for pound, citizen for citizen, community for community, we cannot hold a candle to Ancient Athens, to the Baghdad of Harunu'r-Rashid, or to Renaissance Florence.

Science, electronic communication and rapid transportation have put at our fingertips more knowledge and shared experience than ever before. I believe that if we put our mind to it we could not only live more sustainably than primitive man, but also have a shot at the artistic, literary and creative heights of Athens, Baghdad and Florence.

So the first mission of the world government set up at Terra City, Antarctica would be to design a new infrastructure, an integrated transportation and dwelling network to allow technology to erase our carbon footprint. But carbon footprint reduction surgery is only a beginning. It is the bare minimum of what we can achieve. Its mission beyond the mission would be to establish communities on a sweet point of creative tension between the individual and groups, at the dynamic equilibrium that leads to creative, artistic and cultural efflorescence.

The way to allow every village, town and city, every populated area on earth to make itself into its own Athens, Baghdad or Florence, would be to reset the defaults for the average lifestyle. Only healthy, vital individuals can make for an optimally creative civilization. Only when citizens are trained, with consciousness raised could they remove the prejudice and corruption that make our political organization so ineffective, especially at the local, continental and international levels. With that in mind, consider this Socratic dialog by Xenophon, a friend and student of Socrates. Xenophon suggests that Socrates did not only go around pointing out peoples' logical errors, he did something far more positive and useful; he sought out the successful people of Athens and asked them to share the secrets of their success. Here, Socrates interviews a wealthy and successful householder, who gives him the following important tips for incorporating exercise into daily activities. The lessons he teaches are exactly what we should keep in mind as we redesign the infrastructure of local neighborhoods.

 

From: Xenophon, Oeconomicus, XI, 10-20, pp. 457-459

"By Hera (I replied), Ischomachus, I cannot say how much your doings take my fancy. How you have contrived, to pack up portably for use-- together at the same time--appliances for health and recipes for strength, exercises for war, and pains to promote your wealth! My admiration is raised at every point. That you do study each of these pursuits in the right way, you are yourself a standing proof. Your look of heaven-sent health and general robustness we note with our eyes, while our ears have heard your reputation as a first-rate horseman and the wealthiest of men..."

…

Socrates: Please ... tell me how you take care of your health and your strength, how you make it possible to come through war with safety and honour...

Well, Socrates, replied Ischomachus, `all these things hang together, so far as I can see. For if a man has plenty to eat, and works off the effects properly, I take it that he insures his health and adds to his strength. By training himself in the arts of war he is more qualified to save himself honourably, and by due diligence and avoidance of loose habits, he is more likely to increase his estate.

Socrates: ... You tell me that by labouring to his full strength, working off his ill humours, by expending care, by practice and training, a man may hope more fully to secure life's blessings. So I take your meaning. But now I fain would learn of you some details.

What particular toil do you impose on yourself in order to secure good health and strength? After what particular manner do you practise the arts of war? How do you take pains to create a surplus which will enable you to benefit your friends and to gratify the state?

Why then (Ischomachus replied), my habit is to rise from bed betimes, when I may still expect to find at home this, that, or the other friend, whom I may wish to see. Then, if anything has to be done in town, I set off to transact the business and make that my walk; or, if there is no business to do in town, my serving-boy leads my horse to the farm; I follow, and so make the country-road my walk, which suits my purpose quite as well, or better, Socrates, perhaps, than pacing up and down the colonnade. Then when I have reached the farm, where mayhap some of my men are planting trees, or breaking fallow, sowing or getting in the crops, I inspect their various labours with an eye to every detail, and, whenever I can improve upon the present system, I introduce reform.

After this, as a rule, I mount my horse and take a canter. I put him through his paces, suiting these, as far as possible, to those inevitable in war -- in other words, I avoid neither steep slope nor sheer incline, neither trench nor runnel, only giving my utmost heed the while so as not to lame my horse while exercising him. When that is over, the boy gives the horse a roll, and leads him homewards, taking at the same time from the country to town whatever we may chance to need. Meanwhile I am off for home, partly walking, partly running, and having reached home I take a bath and give myself a rub; and then I breakfast--a repast which leaves me neither empty nor replete, and will suffice to last me through the day.