READER REQUEST: “ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?”

Blog reader John Willow submitted this request a while back. 

“I know you've faced many injuries and have had times when you were smaller and weaker than you'd like, and I observe the same with many top athletes, with Big Z being a particular example of someone who is mocked and looked down upon by some people because he's currently not at his prime, even though he is the strongest man, as well the greatest strongman, who ever lived. I get the impression that some people just want to see circus acts and freaks for their own amusement, they only value and respect others for as long as they are at the absolute peak of their athletic abilities, attaching their worth as competitors and as people, as well as their lifting legacy, purely to some ephemeral notion of absolute everpresent pristine physical ability, which, to my mind, relates to a selfish, destructive and ignorant view of what Strength is. I'd like to hear your thoughts on this, if you're ever willing to share them.”

Pretty much sums it up.  Also, I just realized this movie came out 19 years ago and predates some of my readers...

And though this is already just a solid argument for my continued misanthropy, it’s worth exploring a bit more as well.  Fundamentally, when examining the question of “worth” here, the issue is that many outside observers tie worth all into one inherent quality, when realistically we’re witnessing two distinct sets of “worth” being expressed here: worth as an athlete, and worth as a human.  But, in turn, that boils down to the fact that, for many individuals, they’d rather have a good athlete than a good human if given the choice, in much the same manner that Machiavelli advised one rather be feared than loved.  However, I see this less as a selfish view of what strength is, and more just the inherently selfish view of what the value of other humans are: for MY entertainment. 

That’s not just unique to strength athletes: people are like that when it comes to all athletes, and honestly, to all humans involved in some manner of entertainment, and if we continue to go down the rabbit I’m sure we’ll expand it to be all humans period, but let’s stick with entertainment.  I’m a part-time NFL watcher (American Football, for my ever growing foreign audience.  Hello out there in Holland!), and every year there are more and more rule changes that are enacted as a means to protect the players, and these rule changes coincide with complaints from the “fans” about how unfun it is to watch the sport.  Penalty flags frequently for safety based rules infractions, “concussion protocols” that remove key players from the game and ruin fantasy football scores (which, let me say, as a DnD player, fantasy football is for nerds), players ejected for tackling in unsafe manners, etc etc.  If these folks were truly “fans” of the players, wouldn’t their concern be the safety of the players?  No, for these fans are not fans of the players as humans, but fans of the players as PLAYERS, and ultimately these fans only want to see these humans do the thing that they are good at doing while doing it the BEST way that they can do it.  Less than best is inadequate.  This is the same sentiment about musicians not sounding as good “now that they’re sober”, with fans wishing addiction and all the consequences that go with it upon their “favorite” artist so that they can continue to make their best music, or demanding that their favorite actors get so “method” in their roles that their personal lives take a total downward spiral, just to produce 2 hours of entertainment.  It is not just strength sports where we observe that the “worth” of a person is linked entirely to their ability to be at their absolute best irrespective of the toll it takes on that individual.

The OG when it comes to NFL helmet combat

And buying into all of that crap IS destructive, both externally and internally.  The demands of the sport of strongman to keep getting heavier and heavier eventually forced out one of the greatest strength athletes to ever like, Mikhail “Misha” Koklyaev, who entered the sport an extremely accomplished weightlifter for Russia and went on to become an accomplished powerlifter and highland games competitor AND even participate in some Crossfit workouts.  Incredibly talented, strong, explosive, coordinated, adaptable, Misha eventually stepped down from the sport among a rash of competitors dying saying that the demands of the sport on the body were becoming too much, and, per today’s discussion, some of his fans supported his decision because they were fans of Misha, and others booed it because they were fans of the athlete.  But Misha was at least enough of his own man to make the decision to do what was right FOR Misha: not the athlete.  Those that instead live for the public doom themselves to live at their whims and, in many cases, won’t ever actually realize their full potential BECAUSE they live for the crowds.

This is the recent observation of the impact of social media making athletes WORSE instead of better.  Athletes seek out sponsorships, and now the only manner to obtain one is through a strong and, honestly, annoying social media presence.  Every single waking moment must be filmed and broadcast for the world to see.  And this means an athlete can never allow their abs to blur, they can never have a sloppy set, they must always squat to depth, have to max all the time, set a new PR every workout, can’t have any failed reps, etc etc.  They train, eat and live TO the whim of the public, who fundamentally does not actually care about the athletes’ success or wellbeing, but simply their ability to entertain.  AND, now as a manner of the bizzaro world we live in, the entertainment is NOT to be found in the few hours of competition that happen at the end of the cycle, BUT in the many weeks leading up to it.  It doesn’t matter if an athlete bombs out at a meet, placing last in a bodybuilding show, tears a bicep on the stones, etc etc, so long as the entire prep process leading up to the competition was entertaining.

Just imagine if Kaz was worried about having year-round abs

Living for the public is a hollow existence.  The praise you receive is short lived, tied exclusively to your ability to entertain, and once that is gone, there is no love or support left to rely on.  One fundamentally must, at one point, make the decision to live for oneself if they have any hope of surviving past their entertaining years.  And, in addition, in a bit of irony, living for oneself will fundamentally allow oneself to have MORE entertaining years, as they allow themselves to engage in less entertaining processes in order to prolong their ability to entertain when it comes to the actual competition.  Mark Felix remains a presence at the highest stage of strongman at an age of over 50, and when asked about his training, states that it’s sub-maximal and easier on his body, so that he can recover better and get in more training.  Most of the guys that have hung around for a while have a similar story, while those that trained, ate and lived for the public tend to be the dudes that rose high in the ranks quick and burned out faster, and just as quickly fell out of the public mind.  It flat out isn’t worth it, and YOU are worth more than the adoration of the public.