A Serious Look at Superhumans
Your health will either be your greatest asset or your greatest liability.
Whenever a crisis threatens Gotham City, no one questions Batman’s safety or travel plans. They may question his tactics once he gets there, but no one questions if its safe enough for Batman to try to save the day. With a proven track record for success in dangerous situations and the reputation as a superhero, he’s earned the right to disregard the risk and proceed ahead — in hopes of saving the day.
If we used the same dangerous scenario but replaced Batman with Bruce Wayne without the Batman outfit on, many would fear for his safety. “How could this ordinary man fight against the likes of The Joker, Darkseid, and Bane?” This is because they see him as just an average man, after all he’ll likely die, right? Little do they realize that it has been an ordinary man all along saving the day in Gotham City.
Why would their perceptions of risk and safety be different for Batman vs Bruce Wayne? Because one is viewed as a Superhero and the other is viewed as an Average Man. If Batman didn’t do anything to confront the danger and just coward away in his cave, people would be frustrated and wonder, “Why doesn’t he at least try to save the day?”
I believe this speaks to the Superheroes Responsibility — in the face of danger they must confront it for the rest of us. The fear that grips each of us in dangerous and fearful situations, we look to the strongest amongst us to save the day. This has been true since ancient times, whenever there was a threat to society (war, invasion, dangerous animals, storms) — the champions/fighters/men of the town would be expected to stand up and save the day against any threat, while those that couldn’t defend themselves were safely secured in a remote location. It was still dangerous for those “champions”; however, it was expected for them to assume that risk, in hopes of saving the day.
In our world today, we have these same principles — think of soldiers, cops, and firefighters that serve to protect our freedoms and safety here in America. Our society depends on these people and no one questions if they should confront the danger — we expect it.
Threats look different at different times. Wars, plague, invasion and most recently pandemic. With the advent of the coronavirus pandemic, we were told that we needed to lock our doors, stay inside, and avoid contact with anyone not in our immediate families. From the healthiest amongst us to the weakest amongst us — the instructions were still the same. We went against our nature as a species to fight this threat the proper way. Regardless of your health status, you were told that staying inside was the best way to get through this threat and trust in the government and health authorities to “save the day”. The scariest words an American can hear are, “I’m with the government and I’m here to help.”
The concept of disregarding health status and using broad-ranging recommendations for a society has most likely led to an elongation of this pandemic. With the avoidance tactics many people used to avoid coronavirus contact, it limited the speed to which the majority of our population could be exposed to the virus and begin building an immunity. The logic used was “let’s wait until we know more about this virus before we let people go back to normal life, we don’t want to overwhelm the healthcare system.” This sounds good logically but is woefully ignorant from a public health perspective and from a survival perspective.
To quickly understand your enemy, you must confront it head-on and learn from it. If you hide in a cave, you never understand your enemy’s weaknesses or strengths. You must attack it wisely, with the intent to learn valuable lessons. If we used the survival tactic that has been imprinted in our species since the beginning of time, we would have learned more information and been able to help our populations get through this pandemic faster. (little caveat — I’m all for freedom of choice and you should be allowed to do whatever you want in America, doesn’t mean there won’t be consequences that you are solely responsible for.)
I’m not advocating for ignorantly sending anyone and everyone out to die if there was a deadly pandemic on the loose, but I am in favor of using the Superheroes Responsibility to our advantage as a population.
Who would we send to confront a virus that we do not understand? How do we know who is healthy and strong and who is not? After all, seemingly healthy people were falling victim to coronavirus and it left people scared that if it can happen to them, it can happen to me.
We do not track health optimization metrics as a society; however, we do track and monitor sickness metrics quite well. This leads to a sense of false confidence in people who have never been diagnosed with a disease to believe that they are healthy. Unfortunately, there are levels to being healthy, just like there are levels to sickness. We really do not know the quality of our health, like we are aware of the quality of our diseases. What I mean is, we have a way to quantify sickness, injury, disease in the most specific terms so that people know exactly where they stand on the continuum (Grade 3 sprain, Stage 4 cancer, etc.). If I asked someone, “How healthy are you?” The normal response to that question is, “I don’t know, I think I am pretty healthy.” As the most technologically advanced society in the history of the world, why have we not found a way to determine health quality?
If we were to have such a metric, we would know who are the healthiest and strongest amongst us, to fight this virus head-on. Sending the healthiest amongst us to expose themselves to the virus, would allow for research to be done without the fear of it wiping out large swaths of people. Even the deadliest disease in modern times, the Spanish Flu had a death rate of .64%. That’s 6 in every 1,000 people, for context. Now, you wouldn’t want grandma fighting this thing on her own or someone with a compromised immune system, but someone that is of high-quality health should be absolutely fine. This doesn’t mean they won’t get sick and die but they’ve got a far better shot at winning than grandma. Think of the Batman analogy from the beginning, it is assumed that Batman has a better chance at beating the Joker than Jimmy Nobody. This is why we need superheroes to stand in the gap while the rest of society gets to safety.
I believe we need to start grooming superhumans for the next pandemic. We can’t use the same tactics we used from this pandemic on the next one, especially if the next one is more virulent. Going through this again will completely destroy our society, from a socioeconomic standpoint. I believe we need to adopt tactics from our ancestral past and develop superhumans to save our society. Not superhumans in the sense that they can leap tall buildings in a single bound, but superhumans that are in peak physical, immune, and health condition. It’s not rocket science…seriously. We do not need to develop Steve Rodger’s superhuman serum. We know what it would require to take a person from average health and develop them into peak condition; however, up to this point, it has been seen as a personal decision to dedicate yourself to that lifestyle. Only those “obsessed” with themselves go to that extreme. I believe more people would dedicate themselves to becoming “superhuman”, if they knew they could operate with autonomy but also help us in determining the best strategy against the threat.
The next threat/pandemic/outbreak will most likely be worse and the government is too big and far too incompetent to handle it properly. Developing superhumans to fight for the rest of humanity must be a grass roots movement of Americans to develop “champions” amongst us. We have to keep certain functions of our economy, society, and culture open and operating and we can’t do that if we lock ourselves inside until it “goes away.” Those that clear requirements for health and fitness standards should be able to operate as usual and keep certain essential industries like food supply, trade, and healthcare operational — so that our country does not collapse. Side note — only the individual should have access to their health information and data. I’m not for “passports” from the government for clearance. If you meet certain requirements on a private and secure platform, then no restrictive law should apply to you.
These people could serve as societal champions and will be able to confront danger head-on whenever the rest of the population is at risk. No more sweeping restrictions that completely handicap society and the economy. The effects of the lockdown are beginning to look like they are worse than the pandemic itself. We can’t let this happen again.
This is why I believe its time for regular people who believe in individual freedom and responsibility to begin taking personal responsibility for their health. We cannot have a country of fat, lazy, and unfit people anymore. The age of sedentary lifestyle needs to be over and if you choose not to prioritize your health, then you can lockdown and social distance while the heroes of our culture bravely tackle the tough responsibility of “saving the day” (whatever that entails).
Where does being a healthy and fit person start? I can tell you it doesn’t start at the hospital or at your doctor’s office. Those places are the best at telling you when something is wrong or broken, not when your health is optimal. This isn’t an attack on the medical profession, but they are overworked with sick people, that worrying about human optimization is not even on their radar. They aren’t prepared to handle the level of sophistication it would require to develop superhumans. I believe it starts within each person. Each individual must determine for themselves that they are no longer going to be “just okay” or average health anymore. It is far too expensive to be fat and lazy and this pandemic proved it.
If you’ve made that determination that you are going to dedicate yourself to the highest standards of health and fitness, then I welcome you to the elite class of superhumans. I’m using that term facetiously, but I do believe that people with peak physical, mental, and immune health will be seen as superheroes compared to the rest of the population. No one will question your abilities to handle the risk of the next threat to our population, just like no one questions Batman’s ability.
So, the question for you is simple, “you want to be a superhero and have unlimited autonomy or stay where you are currently and be told what is best for your health the rest of your life?”
The beauty in this country is that you get to decide…for now.
-DR. MIKE GOETSCH
p.s — we have developed a platform that helps you determine the quality of your health & fitness. This is my way of getting people to see the importance of it. :)
