[extropy-chat] Kass again

Adrian Tymes wingcat at pacbell.net
Fri Mar 26 07:16:37 UTC 2004


--- Jeff Davis <jrd1415 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Then quotes Kass: 
> 
> "Worst of all from this point of view are those more
> uncivilized forms of eating, like licking an ice
> cream
> cone --a catlike activity that has been made
> acceptable in informal America but that still
> offends
> those who know eating in public is offensive. 

Meow.  Catty, isn't he?

I know he'll never read this, but I can't help but
comment...

> But eating on the street -- even when
> undertaken, say, because one is between appointments
> and has no other time to eat -- displays in fact
> precisely such lack of self-control: It beckons
> enslavement to the belly. Hunger must be sated now;
> it
> cannot wait.

Hunger must be sated sooner or later.  While there is
a place in the world for enjoyment of food - as with
any other hedonistic pleasure - to force the devotion
of time to it alone in all circumstances shows,
perhaps, an enslavement to that pleasure.  Eating on
the run, meanwhile, shows a willingness to subsume
pleasure to more important things when necessary - not
a lack of self-control, but in fact a prime example of
it.

> Lacking utensils
> for
> cutting and lifting to mouth, he will often be seen
> using his teeth for tearing off chewable portions,
> just like any animal.

Homo sapiens is, biologically, an animal.  Those who
try to deny that, deny a portion of themselves.  Some
of us wish to move beyond this state someday, but
those who have the best chance of accomplishing said
deed remain realistic: as of today, we're all human.
We improve what parts of our nature we can, and work
with what results.

> Eating on the run does not
> even
> allow the human way of enjoying one's food, for it
> is
> more like simple fueling;

Would that food could be reduced to simple fuelling,
with the pleasurable aspects completely separated out!
This would do much to combat the growing problem of
obesity.  Alas, the pleasure and the fuelling are
intrinsically mixed, and it is fair to say that most
living human beings are addicted to food (and water,
and air containing the right partial pressure of
oxygen).

> This
> doglike feeding, if one must engage in it, ought to
> be
> kept from public view, where, even if WE feel no
> shame, others are compelled to witness our shameful
> behavior."

And if others feel no shame in it either?  Popular
behavior patterns are, well, popular, usually to the
point where one can reasonably assume they will
approximate the usual behavior patterns of others (if
they're truly worthy of the "popular" label).  Of
course, one can always try to change what's popular,
but one often has to address the reasons behind the
unwanted popularity to be at all successful.



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