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Arthur Jones Quotes
Editorial
by Arthur Jones
From IRONMAN, May 1972 Volume 31 Number 4, visit www.ironmanmagazine.com
Voting for politicians that tell you what you want to hear has all
but destroyed civilization -- giving in to outrage in the hope of
avoiding trouble has all but destroyed freedom -- and looking for
the "easy" road to success in bodybuilding has all but destroyed
the actually great potential value of weight-training. Which
perpetuates the politicians, pleases the perpetrators of outrages,
and pads the pockets of a pack of predators in the field of
bodybuilding.
And now I am going to set all of this to rights, right?
Sorry, I'm afraid not, In my carefully considered opinion, I don't
think things can be set to rights; I think we are very near the end
of civilization -- or the beginning of a new, never-ending, dark
age. Some few people are aware of the problems, and even see the
obvious solutions; but far too many other people have been led much
too far down the primrose path of false promises. Which, quite
frankly, to me, is quite amusing -- I think most people deserve
just what they are getting, and are about to get; and believe me,
they will get it -- in the neck. For me, as an individual, my time
is almost gone -- and I do not regret its passing; a hundred years
from now, no living person will remember me, and few, if any,
living people will even be aware that I ever existed -- a thousand
years from now, it is highly unlikely that there will be many, if
any, living people to remember anything, least of all the name of
an obscure individual in the then distant past, or the fact that
such a concept as "freedom" ever existed. Which, in a way, is
unfortunate -- since it just might be that I represent the last
example of an actually "free" man remaining on this planet. There
are, of course, millions of people who call themselves "free"
simply because they have chosen to shirk their responsibilities --
little realizing, or caring, that this freedom has been purchased
by the tightening of the bonds of others. But having accepted and
met my responsibilities as best I can -- and no man can do more --
I can be, and am, free in an actual sense. Freedom must be
purchased, and I have paid my dues -- freedom must be fought for
and defended, and I will carry the scars of my battles to my grave
--
freedom must be sacrificed in return for security, and I have
refused to pay that price.
The six decades during which I have lived have been, in many ways,
perhaps the most interesting period in history -- this being true
primarily because transportation had advanced to a point where it
was possible for me to roam the world without spending most of my
life "enroute," but not to the point where the interesting features
of the world had been destroyed by the influx of tourists. But
that era is all but finished, another ten or fifteen years-at the
outside, twenty -- will finish both my life and any few remaining
opportunities for real freedom; so I will have lived during a
fortunate period in the history of mankind.
The above being true, as it is, do you then think that I really
care what happens afterwards -- or that I am much worried about
what happens during my few remaining years. My parents are long
dead, most of my real friends are either dead or so near death that
their passing will surprise neither themselves nor me, the big
herds of elephants are gone from the Africa that I once knew. "Big
Brother" is coming -- and has already arrived in many places and,
quite frankly, my days of wishful thinking are far behind me.
But, if that is also true (as it is), then why do I bother with
attempts to get a few points of simple logic across to a very small
group of people -- who, for the most part, ave been so brainwashed
by commercial interests that they don't even want to hear the truth
--
and why do I care what such people think anyway? Many readers,
of course, will readily answer that question to their own
satisfaction with no slightest hesitation "...in an effort to serve
my own commercial interests."
Hogwash. During the last year alone I have turned down three
filming propositions that would have earned me more money than I
can possibly make from my interests in the weight-training field
during the entire remainder of my life. "Then," some readers may
think, "I am already so wealthy that I don't care about money --
and am, perhaps, only interested in amusing myself?" Hogwash,
again. Think what you like, believe what you will, the simple
truth of the matter is that I enjoy work-people like me have
recently been diagnosed as "workaholics," as good a label I
suppose, as any, and a far more polite one than some that have been
hurled at me.
During the last thirty years, most of the worthwhile
characteristics of civilization, no small part of the Earth itself,
and practically all of the benefits of progressive exercise have
been so perverted that almost nothing of value remains; the
problems are known, but are ignored -- the answers are available,
but are denied -- primarily, it seems, because far too many people
are interested only in avoiding controversy or are unwilling to
face up to difficult solutions.
In the fields of greatest importance to most people, politics,
sociology, and the environmental sciences, I can do nothing to help
anybody, not even myself, and I am fully convinced that the people
who might be able to do something in these areas, won't, in fact,
do anything of any slightest value to anybody, not even themselves
instead, they will hesitate, procrastinate, pass the buck, form
--
committees, investigate, occasionally release ambiguous reports of
absolutely no value, stall, lie, shirk their responsibilities, and
blame others for their own mistakes. At this stage in the history
of mankind, if you even hope for anything different from
politicians or the people in charge of the scientific
community, then you are a fool, purely and simply.
The wolves of politics and science cannot be avoided -- eventually
they will pull us all down, and themselves with us; but dodging in
and out around the feet of the wolves are the jackals of commercial
interest -- and you can avoid them. But, human nature
being what it is, most people won't avoid them -- instead, most
people will continue to look for "easy" solutions, thus making
themselves easy prey for the jackals.
My sphere of possible influence is thus limited in several ways; by
the very nature of my present work, I am limited to a possible
audience of people interested in weight-training, actually a very
small part of humanity -- secondly because I hold out no
hope of "easy" solutions to difficult problems, many weight
trainees will turn away from my words in search of some "secret to
instant, effortless success" -- and thirdly, many trainees who
realize that no "easy" solutions exist may still be left in doubt
because they fail to understand the actually simple physical laws
that I have been writing about for the last two years in Iron Man
My potential audience thus limited to some few thousand
weight-trainees who do at least understand the basic physics.
involved -- and it is for these few that my articles are intended;
if I attempt to write articles of interest to even the average
trainee, then my selection of subjects and my treatments of these
subjects would be limited in the extreme -- limited to hogwash,
the same hogwash that has been printed a thousand times, the type
of hogwash of no value to anybody, hogwash that generally
isn't even true.
So if you are interested in hogwash, then read somebody else's
articles -- my articles are intended for men, men who want to
bear the truth and are not afraid to face up to hard solutions to
their problems, and if you think my articles are hogwash, then put
your money where your mouth is. I have been known to make wagers
for money, and I will back any of my statements with my cash, or my
life. I used to think that most people were unjustifiably biased
against bodybuilders as a class -- but I now realize that the
actual state of affairs in bodybuilding circles today is far worse
than most people even suspect; which is a cryin' shame, because
progressive weight-training could be, and SHOULD be, of very great
value to almost everybody, and might be if it were not for the
antics and outrages of many of the very people who should be doing
everything in their power to promote weight-training. "And now I
will change all of that, right?
Wrong. The very most I can even hope to do is to try to reach a
tiny minority of humanity -- and even if I can reach them, the
most I can then hope to do is to direct their thinking into a
logical direction.
Arthur Jones Quotes