The one lesson of good health
By Don Thaayù
To eat, or not to eat. That is the question.
There is a great movie out there called A Beautiful Mind. It was my first intro to the mental state of paranoid schizophrenia. It’s a story about a brilliant guy who just happened to see imaginary people from time to time. It led me to learn more about multiple personality disorder, and helped fuel my interest in philosophy and neuroscience.
It’s funny now, from my current non-religious perspective, to see how quick we are to label people as “crazy” or “wicked”. More often than not, we just want people to submit to our will, to our moral conclusions, so we categorize anyone who doesn’t agree with us as “crazy”, or some similar categorization.
The fact is that a split-, or multiple-personality is kind of the norm for human beings. Every desire or value that we invest in, over time, develops its own personality, of a sort. For example, there is the “me” who wants to be really productive. If that were the only me, I’d probably be doing pretty well, though maybe traumatized in other areas. But that’s not the only “me” in my head. There’s the gamer me, the parent me, the procrastinating me, the responsible friend me, the sad me, the tired and hungry me, the planner me (that’s the one who conspires with my procrastinator, telling themselves that making plans is the same as production), and several others.
I don’t think I'm alone in this situation. I suspect that, to some degree or other, most humans have a kind of political, or economic battle going on inside their heads all the time.
Another version of this is the story of feeding the right wolf, where a native American chief counsels his warriors to give their energy only to the version of their internal “wolf” which serves them, rather than to the one that will destroy them and those around them.
Multiple wolves, or split-personalities, the human mind is a bit of a battle ground.
This brings us to the economics of eating. Almost. First, I have to reference one of my favorite books, Economics in One Lesson, by Henry Hazlitt.
In this book, Mr. Hazlitt describes his “one lesson” like this: any economic policy is “good” if it serves all people at all times. If either of these conditions are broken, then such an economic policy is a “bad” one. For example, a reverence for and a defense of private property is a “good” economic policy, as it serves and benefits all people at all times, harming only those who wish to profit at another’s expense, against their will. Private property is, in principle, good for all, only harming those who wish to prey on others.
Another “good” policy would be one which promotes and enforces a general non-aggression policy, one in which anyone who initiates the use of force against another is stopped and punished. This moral and economic code is good for all, ensuring general peace and welfare, and is harmful only to those wishing to initiate the threat or the actuality of harm to others unjustly.
An example of a “bad” economic policy is taxation, or one of its many fruits, such as government welfare or a social security program. Taxation is theft, benefiting only those with the power to enforce it, at the expense of those who are forced to pay it. Welfare and social security benefit specific interest groups at the expense of others, without their consent.
I love his analysys. He describes his “one lesson” right away, then spends the rest of the book supporting his thesis. I find his arguments self-evident and very instructive. Now we are ready to eat!
If you live with a sort of political system within your mind, then a wise “economic” policy would benefit you very much. For example, we could say there is a special interest group located in your mouth. It’s your taste buds. They are lobbyists who constantly petition your mind for control over the jaws and the hands at specific times. When the foods they love are available, they team up with your slobber to make a strong case for their benefit.
Another part of your personal economic makeup is your stomach. It is supported by your heart, your vascular system, your liver, kidneys, pancreas, your lungs, and more. Pretty much every part of your body’s physical composition outside of the mouth is the citizenry, so to speak, that makes up your body politic. They are the ones who reap the benefit of the taste buds, the teeth, the salivary glands, and your chewing and swallowing muscles. They are also the poor slobs that get taxed to pay for poor economic eating choices, enforced by the mouth lobby.
My buddy and mentor, Chef Njathi Kabui, has, through the effort of decades, identified a serious problem with our food. Rather than the solved problem we’ve been sold, our global food system is anything but safe and supportive of human health and growth. The details are amazing, scary, and discouraging. But he has provided a fix and a wonderful alternative in his Afro-Futuristic Cuisine. Not only is his food delicious, but nutrition and purity are at the core of his “just food” approach to eating.
I bring up my association with Chef Kabui because it gives us a solid dilemma to chew, along with our food. Before he came along, the advice of the best nutritional and medical authorities was “diet and exercise”. Oh, and pills. And regular checkups. Now, fortunately, we have access to a full analysis of the scope of the failure and dangers of our global food supply chain, as well as locations for emerging supply chains with the potential to reverse a deadly situation. In other words, with his thesis and ongoing work, we now have a clearer picture of what we are up against when hunger strikes, and we are fully able to make use of the “one lesson” Henry Hazlitt spoke of, and apply it to our own internal political situation.
When we take a bite of anything, it has the short term consequence of providing certain services to the lobby (the mouth and appetite), as well as medium and long term consequences to the overall health of the entire cellular body politic.
How are you doing with your economic knowledge? If you don’t know about how bad most of the food available in our markets and restaurants is, I suggest you attend some of Chef Kabui’s lectures and classes. If you know, then let’s ask this question: are you making use of the “one lesson” as you eat? Is the bite you’re taking right now serving the lobby only, at the expense of the body politic? Is the bite you are chewing creating a tax that will be imposed on the rest of your body, a fiat load, as soon as you swallow? Are you satisfying your friends and family as they pressure you to “pick your poison”, to “eat, drink, and be merry, for health insurance covers everything”? Are you employing, with each bite, a policy that serves one specific part of your body at the expense of the rest?
I love my Chef Kabui. He offers a priceless commodity in allowing us to once again think of our food supply chain, our recipes, and our meals, as a solved problem. He offers the food abundance and flavor that we crave, but without the tax of fiat food. By applying the economics of eating that he teaches, we are able to, with every bite, satisfy the lobby in our mouths, while passing on great benefit and power to the rest of the body politic. This is the economics of eating. Let’s learn this “one lesson”, and apply it with every bite.