What We Are Up Against

by Carl Nelson

A Facebook friend, Ruth Papazian, recently made this comment on Facebook regarding a recent online article: “Why don’t rich people eat anymore?”

“I was dining with a group of “Social X-Rays” after some political or charity function and not being painfully thin, I was *literally* the “fattest” woman at the table. At some point in the middle of the meal I put down my fork to see what everyone else would do. Sure enough … they all stopped eating when “the fat girl” did. I let a good five minutes go by, and picked up my fork again to take a couple more bites before stopping for real. They all picked up their forks too. When I pushed my plate slightly away to signal I wasn’t going to eat anymore, right on cue the rest of them stopped eating again.

It was so obvious. So pathetic. None of these women could authentically be themselves and satiate their hunger or indulge in an unusually luscious dessert. At all cost, they had to remain bony and gaunt. Of course, as they aged they’d run to the plastic surgeon for injectibles and implants to fill out the hollows in their sunken cheeks and ropey hands where a bit of youthful plumpness should have been.”

Among the respondents to her posting was mine, and I replied:

“I published a book on dieting, “The Poet’s 40 Pound Weight Loss Program”. (Note: 40 pounds was a far as I got. (full disclosure) It was partly a Self-Help Book way of enticing people into reading my poetry.) I cautioned people against being smug regarding any success they had. But, realistically, possibly the single most effective people at staying slim were those who dieted to stay within the circles of their elite. Without that near Stalinesque desire, maintaining a weight lower than one’s natural bearing is very hard, and to my mind, hardly worth it.”

To which another fellow trenchantly replied:

“…and if that’s weight loss, imagine the psychological burden not to stray from ideology!”

I really can’t think of a more impressive example of the Progressive resistance reality (and the Conservative argument) is up against.