KEEPERS OF LORE, SOOTHSAYERS AND GOSSIPS

Continuing on with my theme of the tribe gathering around the communal fire and storytelling, allow me to discuss the types of individuals one can encounter at these communal fires and the value of their contributions.  I’ve broken this down into 3 categories: keepers of lore, soothsayers, and gossips.  Keepers of lore would fundamentally be those storytellers I prized in my earlier writings: those that know the history of the tribe, it’s stories, myths and legends, and are able to retell these events and weave together the tapestry of bits and pieces of information, lore and knowledge into a comprehensible and understandable narrative.  Anyone can know random facts and trivia, but the ability to recall them WHEN they are relevant and present them in manner that is appreciable to the audience is the real value.  We then have soothsayers: those wild-eyed mystics who gaze into the abyss and attempt to foretell the future and fortunes of those in attendance.  Whereas the keepers of the lore are concerned with the past, the soothsayers speak to the future.  And then the gossips, who speak only of the present, the people that are here and now, and the goings-ons as they occur.  What is the key difference of the third group here?  It takes NO talent to be a gossip, which is why, at any communal fire, there will be a disproportionate amount of gossips compared to Keepers of Lore and Soothsayers.

Not a keeper of lore...but there IS lore around this keeper

 

In the realm of physical transformation, we absolutely NEED Keepers of Lore.  Those iron historians that can re-tell the stories of Pat Casey hitting a 600lb bench press in 1967 in a t-shirt on a rickety bench that looks like something from a yardsale off a diet of meatloaf sandwiches slathered in mayo while Paul Anderson was squatting 1100lbs out of a hole he dug in his backyard, a trick Bob Peoples taught him, while chugging a mix of milk and honey between sets.  To say nothing of those TRUE historians that can cite instances of the first set of dumbbells found in ancient Greek gladiatorial training centers, or the use of heavy clubs with Indian wrestlers dating back to well before Christ, or how the Spartans learned to eat a diet of barley vs grain and venison vs pork and, subsequently, found themselves leaner than their Athenian counterparts.  We learn SO much about the future by looking into the past, because the physical transformation gestalt is cyclical, much like everything else in existence.  Styles and practices ebb and flow, with high volume being the training style du jour one day only to be replaced by HIT the next, only to transition to functional patterns, only back to abbreviated training, only to come back to traditional bodybuilding.  And nutrition experiences similar instances of en vouge practices followed by the immediate counter-reaction, with us observing low-carb’s popularity in the 70s, and then the 90s, and then the 2010s and then the counter-reaction of high carb in the 80s and currently.

 

What we can gain, among many things, from these Keepers of Lore is the common trends that ran deep among those that succeeded and how we can apply them to our current situation.  On the micro-level, all these methods can appear wildly different, but the historical perspective affords us the luxury of being able to step back and analyze from far away, and in doing so we are better able to observe what commonalities those who have succeeded have all shared and, consequently, what trends have resulted in failure and burnout.  Effort, consistency and time are those ever present principles, and those who attempt to bypass either of these principles tend to be the ones that we recognize as the snakeoil salesman and charlatans of their era: flashes in the pan remembered as a comical footnote in the annals of history.

 

Although some DO have a little more staying power than others...

In contrast, we have the soothsayers of physical transformation.  Who are these people?  These are the pioneers: the people out there trying new stuff, engaging in their own n=1 studies, subjecting their bodies to all manner of experimentation and embracing this journey with an open mind and an adventuring spirit.  Yes, you can tell how much I love these types of individuals, because the current world of physical transformation is so incredibly neutered, whereas in the past this pioneering spirit was THRIVING with the likes of Bill “Peanuts” West and the original Culver City Westside Barbell crew recruiting any and every strong human they could find on the planet in order to try out whatever whacky method they could come up with in order to get as strong as physically possible (which, consequently, is why they housed Pat Casey and Superstar Billy Graham as the only two individuals on the planet that could bench over 600lbs in the 1960s).  And here I am talking about the past when I talk about the future, but we saw this same spirit with the other Westside Barbell crew of Louie Simmons, where according to everyone that actually read the Russian literature, Louie COMPLETELY misunderstood it…and still made his misunderstanding totally work by creating his own incredibly unique system totally out of scratch, constantly modifying, tweaking and inventing stuff while experimenting on his stable of mutants in order to create the most dominant powerlifting gym of it’s era.  While everyone else was content to just do what everyone else was doing, these pioneering individuals gazed into the future and JUMPED ahead of the curve.

 

I love listening to soothsayers at the communal fire.  The first time I heard Shawn Baker discussing carnivore on Mark Bell’s podcast, it completely blew my mind how totally contrarian everything he said was to everything I’d ever heard, which of course drew me in.  It was the same hearing Jon Andersen discuss Deep Water, or hearing Jamie Lewis discuss…anything, despite him truthfully being a Keeper of Lore, because he took that information and used it to reach INTO the future and drag us through a timeportal.  In modern times, I look to those that are espousing ideas that run counter to what is currently being purported, because, quite frankly, I have SEEN what modernity is producing, and I am NOT impressed.

Although the future doesn't look too bright either

 

Which leads us to the gossips: those who are only pre-occupied with the goings-ons of the here and now.  Again: why are there so many gossips?  Because it requires NO talent to be a gossip.  All of us are equipped with the faculties to look at what is currently transpiring and regurgitate it to anyone who will listen to us: hell, you can train a parrot to perform that trick.  These people gather around the communal fire and simply discuss those that are already present and what they are already doing: who cares?  We all already KNOW all of this: why don’t you bring some value to the fire and tell me a story about the past or a prediction of the future?

 

You readers of academic studies who simply share what was contained in an abstract that you overheard some influencer discussing on a 60 second Tik Tok reel: you are contributing no value to the discussion at the fire.  Hell, these studies are always “yesterday’s news” as it is, for even a GOOD study (already a rarity) has to undergo so much scrutiny and review that, by the time the information comes out, those bros that were in the trenches already figured out all this stuff 20 years ago.  And yet, when they tried to share it with you as a Keeper of Lore, you called it anecdote and bro-science, but now that someone slapped a study name on it and acquired a funded grant it suddenly has legitimacy?  Your preoccupation with the present is, ironically enough, keeping you behind everyone else that is eagerly lapping up the stories of the past and the predictions of the future in order to achieve their own transformations.  While you prattle on about the gossip of the day, others are equipping themselves with lore and fortunes to be able to overcome the challenges of the future with the wisdom of the past.

This is the sort of maniac prophet I can't wait to listen to!

 

Leave the gossipers to gossip at the fringes of the fire.  Seek out the Keepers of Lore and the Soothsayers and make the most of your time at the fire.  One day, it will go out, and you’ll regret all the stories and predictions left to be told.