"Stay Hungry" as Universal Principle?
January 18, 2010
If you want to perceive the world differently, don't eat for a day - or eat very little. The world will appear differently. You'll sense new smells, new sights. Bland food will suddenly become delicious. If you want to force yourself to "eat healthier," don't eat for a day. Suddenly chicken and broccoli will be welcome.
Hunger makes a person wild. It awakens our human instincts. Don't eat, and suddenly you'll notice new sights, sounds, and smells. Eat a large meal, and you'll want to sit. Your body shuts down. You lose touch with the wild side of your own humanity. You become, as the government and those who would control you prefer, tame.
"Let me have men about me that are fat; Sleek-headed men and such as sleep o' nights: Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look; He thinks too much: such men are dangerous."
Hunger inspires movement. Movement is power's enemy. The cage's gates cannot close in on the free.
A well-fed body undergo physiological changes that discourage movement:
ScienceDaily (Dec. 21, 2009) — A body that is provided with food too often gets caught up in the maelstrom of a lack of exercise, obesity and ultimately diabetes. The trigger is a molecular switch that is controlled by insulin, a new study by scientists from ETH Zurich has revealed.
[T]wo brain messenger substances trigger different behavior patterns: the intake of food and spontaneous movement. If mammals are hungry, they are more alert and physically active. In short, they hunt and look for food. "If you watch a cat or a dog before feeding it, you can see this very clearly," says Stoffel.
(Hat tip: Jay.) Hunger need not be limited to physical hunger. It applies universally. The person who has everything has nothing.
Psychologically, the lack of hunger leads to psychological illnesses like "social anxiety." Don't eat for a day. Then see if you really give a fuck what the person in the cubicle next door thinks of you. Skip a few meals, and then report back about how your "self-esteem needs" aren't being met.
Hunger is not the same thing as starvation. One must find a balance. Probably intermittent fasting (Wikipedia entry) is that balance.