Today's high will be 80 degrees Fahrenheit; by next Wednesday we will have a high of 105 degrees Fahrenheit ¹. Looks like stuff is heating up! ² As the summer heats rolls around, will people readily accept the "new normal" of locked-in life as they wish to stay where the air conditioning is anyways?

To feel the heat is to be reminded of nature—the stuff that civilization shields us from. To find a cold shower refreshing is to re-create some of the experience of jumping into a refreshingly cool lake.

Humans did not evolve to sit in ergonomic chairs for 8-ish hours a day ³; we are optimized to forage, to hunt, and to form groups (tribes). When we are bored, we paint, make music, and play sports/games. Through these activities, we learn to obey rules/norms, respect our competition, and resolve conflicts. Also, we have fun.

By being clever with abstractions some of us can convince their bodies that they are doing the aforementioned activities. Dueling with mind power at work then going to an intense workout afterwords may be sufficiently convince the body that one has planned and executed a successful hunting expedition.

No new news

The above thoughts are not original; they have, for instance, been (in)famously recorded in Industrial Society and Its Future by Theodore "Uncle Ted" Kaczynski. ⁴

In his chapter "Surrogate Activities", Kaczynski describes how some people are able to find fulfillment in activities that aren't immediately useful to their survival like hunting is,

1. But not every leisured aristocrat becomes bored and demoralized. For example, the emperor Hirohito, instead of sinking into decadent hedonism, devoted himself to marine biology, a field in which he became distinguished. When people do not have to exert themselves to satisfy their physical needs they often set up artificial goals for themselves. In many cases they then pursue these goals with the same energy and emotional involvement that they otherwise would have put into the search for physical necessities...

During all this COVID-19 stuff, we'll see images/news articles/etc. saying how "easy" it is just sit on the couch and "do nothing" while such-and-such heroes solve this pandemic for us. Why should anyone complain when they are being asked to do something so simple?

Uncle Ted elaborates,

1. In modern industrial society only minimal effort is necessary to satisfy one's physical needs. It is enough to go through a training program to acquire some petty technical skill, then come to work on time and exert very modest effort needed to hold a job. The only requirements are a moderate amount of intelligence, and most of all, simple OBEDIENCE. If one has those, society takes care of one from cradle to grave. (Yes, there is an underclass that cannot take physical necessities for granted, but we are speaking here of mainstream society.) Thus it is not surprising that modern society is full of surrogate activities. These include scientific work, athletic achievement, humanitarian work, artistic and literary creation, climbing the corporate ladder, acquisition of money and material goods far beyond the point at which they cease to give any additional physical satisfaction, and social activism when it addresses issues that are not important for the activist personally, as in the case of white activists who work for the rights of nonwhite minorities. These are not always pure surrogate activities, since for many people they may be motivated in part by needs other than the need to have some goal to pursue...

What is happening for many people during lock-down is that they are doubly locked-down. First, is the normal lock-down of socialization (which involves turning natural instincts to surrogate activities). Now, as many of these surrogate activities are taken away, people are asked to... ...watch others doing surrogate activities? Play video games to simulate some surrogate activities?

Facing the heat

Choosing to not turn on the AC is decisive step in facing the heat—re-engaging "natural" human struggle. Most of us are not farmers, hunters, and the like—we are deeply embedded in industrial society. It is not difficult to imagine why this is very difficult for those of us who are not particularly abstraction-adept, introverted, obedient and/or already off the grid somewhere.

Actively choosing to face (physical) difficulties of various sorts is a step towards re-engaging the human knack for problem solving, community formation, etc. Problems with motivation are "irrational" insofar as we uncritically believe the axioms handed down to us by depressed happiness researchers.

Returning to slowly observe and learn from direct sensation rather than words, words, and more words is a step towards reconnecting with reality. If words are needed, texts at least 100 years old are preferrable for wisdom, informally published stuff by laypeople (like yours truly) is good fun for the "modern" stuff 😛