Just kind of a random question I’ve had floating around in my head: should we be working out?
Like, naturally comrades who are disabled/food insecure/otherwise not able to consistently exercise shouldn’t feel required to do so, and should instead only do so if it is healthy for them and plausible for their current situation. However, those of us who are largely capable of undertaking consistent diet and exercise, I kind of have the question of whether we should be obligated to? The day the revolution comes, there will be many fascists who are in prime physical condition to actually fight a war due to the pervasive nature of gym culture and machismo patriarchy. Should we not do what we can to prepare in kind?
I understand that this isn’t Vietnam anymore, and most warfare (at least on the side of the bourgeoisie) will likely be done with drones against human targets. See NATO v. Russia in Ukraine and the genocide in Palestine to understand more of what modern warfare will look like, but I digress. When it comes time for us to pick up arms and storm capital buildings, how will our fighting force survive if the many of us aren’t physically capable of sprinting more than a short distance, dropping and rolling quickly, digging ditches, or scaling fences or walls?
This question may be more pointed to certain ‘comfortable’ demographics of the West, because many proletarians do not have the luxury of working soft jobs that do not harden their bodies; or they otherwise require some of these skills to survive. Then I suppose you can even extend the question to: should we start learning survivalist methods like foraging and fireplace building and such? Most of this warfare that will take place will be guerrilla warfare, and historically those have taken place in dense forests and mountains. I suppose there will also be urban warfare to an extent, but regardless clandestine operations of the vanguard party leadership will take place in secret places stored away from society. Even then, urban warfare will require its own host of resources and methods to survive. Is this supposed to be an issue that the vanguard party will solve during organization of the working class?
I was forced to do sports since I can think. After getting independent early this habit never ceased to exist and I continued doing so, actual for no reason. Had to train my body as best as I could. Sadly I managed to damage my knees, but I finally stopped after my job took more and more energy from me. For a while it went well to work and after that train your body.
But I tell you, I started to get so tired from working. Working like a mule the whole day, then doing laundry, cooking, cleaning, buying groceries. I just wanted to relax and do nothing at some point. Sometimes a came home and felt asleep after eating. This shitty ass system is taking your lifeforce and then workers get blamed as lazy, if they are “finished” after work. And I still needed to study for my job and let us not forget politics. This is the shitty thing, if you get to tired to grab a book and read something. With the little time you have after work, everything has to work somehow.
Knowing of experience, if working out won’t work, look at your diet if possible. However being poor limits what you can buy and did I mentioned cooking after work? Reason why convenient food is bought also, because it is so fast. I have the option to buy 1KG Lasagna for 3,99€. It tastes not good, is the opposite of healthy but its 3,99€ (Man, poor animal had to day for this shit). Put it into oven wait. In the meantime you can take shower or whatever. It is tiring. Tiring, tiring, soooo tiring.
If you have no family or friends to support you, shit gets even more bad. I can understand everyone who does not have any motivation under such circumstances. I am always pissed to read from shitlibs how it is a sign of weakness and even bad moral, if you are tired to do anything. People have families to, children will consume more of your time.
I am happy, that I know how to start again, that working is not unknown for me and that I practised boxing as a teenager (Most typical far east-europe thing imho. I admired Valujev).
So, if you can, do it, don’t damage your knees or joints. It will get painful if you age more and more. If you can learn boxing or similar things, do it (I was once told that boxing is reactionary, because it involved violence… Yeah). And at least try to look at your diet. The last is such an effective way to loose weight and make your physical constitution better.
Everything of course only if possible. Some are disabled or disabled etc. So don’t shame yourself or feel bad, if you don’t have the possibility.
No wonder the professional revolutionary is a thing.