The best way to get a human into good physical shape is to prepare them for a fight. I've never been in better shape than when I was boxing - I was strong, I was fast, my cardio was great. In theory, nowadays I should be in better shape. Rather than focusing my time on bag work, drills, footwork, etc, I could be focusing on fitness. Yet in reality I'm nowhere near my fighting peak. I can do a lot of pullups, but I doubt I could crank out more than 20 burpees right now.
The reason for this is that I've lost my focus: if my cardio sucks, the result is no longer getting punched in the face.
It's an interesting hypothesis, and one that should not be dismissed out of hand, that societies behave in the same way. Think about our modern malaise - we have no grand projects, particularly in the public sector. All we do is funnel money in the general direction of something we like - nondeterministic optimism, in Peter Thiel's language.
Consider California high speed rail, supported by both the president and governor of CA. 8 years later lots of money has been spent but no track has been laid [1]. Would 8 years of delay on a vital project be acceptable to a nation preparing for war? I suspect not.
[1] There is no technological barrier here. The Qinhuangdao–Shenyang high speed rail - 250 miles long - was built in 4 years.
> Think about our modern malaise - we have no grand projects, particularly in the public sector.
Interestingly I've heard that in economic return-on-investment terms grand projects are almost always failures.
> [1] There is no technological barrier here. The Qinhuangdao–Shenyang high speed rail - 250 miles long - was built in 4 years.
The barriers are other than technological, sure - I don't know about California, but the things delaying the next high-speed rail line in my own country are court cases, appeals, and political disputes over matters like: some houses need to be demolished to build the stations; the line might disturb the ecology of some wetlands, the line will make a naturally beautiful area less so. Along with some analysis-paralysis issues (is this the best use of public funds? The model for the original analysis was wrong! Will the line still be in the right place by the time it's built?)
I suspect China, or a hypothetical America-at-war (or even America-at-cold-war), would not worry about the first category, and would take higher risks on the second. We've become a lot more risk-averse as a society, sure. I'm not convinced that this isn't simply a rational response to a safer world, where most citizens, on the whole, enjoy a pretty good life. Risking a few deaths and some blighted regions for the sake of a bit more growth makes more sense the poorer you are.
It doesn't need to be a fight. We can generalize to competitions, where we have examples such as athletes and gymnasts (who in particular are amazing). But you can also look at performers outside pure competitions too: acrobats and dancers are also very fit individuals.
Fight and competition are too specific. There's just needs to be some well defined goal to move towards, it just so happens that competition is one of the best ways to provide that. And since competitions need not be violent, let's prefer to use that terminology instead.
The reason for this is that I've lost my focus: if my cardio sucks, the result is no longer getting punched in the face.
It's an interesting hypothesis, and one that should not be dismissed out of hand, that societies behave in the same way. Think about our modern malaise - we have no grand projects, particularly in the public sector. All we do is funnel money in the general direction of something we like - nondeterministic optimism, in Peter Thiel's language.
Consider California high speed rail, supported by both the president and governor of CA. 8 years later lots of money has been spent but no track has been laid [1]. Would 8 years of delay on a vital project be acceptable to a nation preparing for war? I suspect not.
[1] There is no technological barrier here. The Qinhuangdao–Shenyang high speed rail - 250 miles long - was built in 4 years.