False promises at 3 a.m.
I was up late last night flipping through my favorite TV channels and I made a somewhat surprising discovery. Literally every channel was playing infomercials, which isn’t unusual at all at that hour of the morning. But every informercial was for some new workout routine or equipment that was supposed to produce astonishing results in as little as two weeks. I know I shouldn’t have been surprised, but the fact that I actually noticed it made me think about it.
I know that Americans are among the most overweight and unhealthy people on the planet. But do they really fall for the miracle machines and diet supplements? Yes they do. And they do because they are so desperate to get results. They don’t want to do things the healthy way by eating right and exercising because it takes too long. And I’ll readily admit that I simply don’t have time to do what I need to do to stay healthy along with the millions of other Americans. Life doesn’t really allow for that anymore for someone of my age and profession.
I’ve taken a cruise down the diet isle and looked at all of the pills that claim the same results. I’ve sat on the couch and watched those ridiculous infomercials and have actually considered ordering. Who hasn’t? For something to actually work like it promises would be a dream fulfilled. But I haven’t taken the bait. I’m too realistic and cheap to do so.
It just seems like all of these products and systems are promising something they can’t really deliver on. They promise super flat abs and two dress or pant sizes dropped in a week. But the reality is that everyone has a different body chemistry and there’s no way that promise can hold true for the entire mass of people watching. I myself am blessed genetically with a body that makes it a very hard and slow process to lose any significant weight through my mother’s side of the family. Believe me, I tried and the furthest I got was losing 10 pounds over the course of about three months. I was going to the gym three times a week and routinely cutting back on the amount of food I was eating along with decreasing my intake of sweets.
What is wrong with the world that our lives are so inundated with diet concerns? Too many people blame the media for our negative body images. The fact is that the media will deliver what the people want in order for advertisements to work. So why do people want to see stick-thin women that have been created in photoshop and don’t even exist? That’s the real question.
Racial divides? Think again
It’s always seemed curious to me how people refer to races. I’m just about as white as they come without being albino. How does that classify me? And why in the world should I be classified by the fact that I’m white? What the hell does race mean anyway?
Race is a socially constructed idea. There’s actually scientific proof that there are less genetic differences between “races” than there are within a certain “race.” I can only think that the idea of race was placed into our society in order to deem ourselves superior to others. Africans were enslaved for supposedly being inferior. Millions of Jews were slaughtered for supposedly being inferior. There have been genecides and wars over such a silly concept as race.
But race is such a part of our society and our collective thinking that it’s hard to get past. We’ve been raised knowing that there are significant differences between “races” – a false ideal that much of the world still believes. Here at home in the USA, the main difference seems to continually be white versus black. But few people know that since slavery and the interactions between masters and their slaves, our genes have intertwined. Most, if not all, Americans have African American blood running in their veins, even if only a drop or two.
Think about it.
