11 ms·
"Historically, however, walking has been the privilege of white men." Come on... Anyway, Nietzsche used to walk before writing like Darwin Long time ago I rea
by jcq3 5y ago
"Historically, however, walking has been the privilege of white men." Come on...
Anyway, Nietzsche used to walk before writing like Darwin
Long time ago I read that walking or taking a shower make your thinking more effective because it somehow enables automation mode and allow to be more focused
- klipt 5y agoHunter gatherers (who mostly aren't white) probably do way more walking than most modern people.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- WalterBright 5y agoThe Australian indigenous peoples walked 9 miles a day (men) and 5 miles a day (women).
- betwixthewires 5y agoSo the men left the women behind? Or the women weren't allowed to walk as much? We need to close that mile gap!
- jiocrag 5y agoHe’s talking about walking to leisurely ideation, not walking and running to survive lol.
- WalterBright 5y agoFor millennia, the wealthy 1% rode and everyone else walked.
- onlyrealcuzzo 5y agoFor many more millennia everyone walked everywhere...
- eternalban 5y agoBut it wasn't "thinking" that obtained that wealth.
- ElFitz 5y ago> Long time ago I read that walking or taking a shower make your thinking more effective because it somehow enables automation mode and allow to be more focused They mention it quite a lot in the "Learning how to learn" coursera course. They call it the "diffuse mode", by opposition with the "focused mode". The course was quite interesting and easy to digest.
- yodsanklai 5y agoWhat an extremely dumb statement. When you think this guy is an anthropologist... > Jeremy DeSilva is an anthropologist at Dartmouth College. He is part of the research team that discovered and described two ancient members of the human family tree—Australopithecus sediba and Homo naledi.
- IncRnd 5y agoIt shows that he doesn't practice science, despite his profession.
- flippinburgers 5y agoOften new angles of thought come to me when walking. Also, as others have aptly pointed out, people who are not wealthy are in fact the ones who will end up doing the most walking. People who gravitate towards using the word privilege ... just yikes.
- jiocrag 5y agoPoor walk to survive and work—often hungry, stressed or with a goal in mind. Goes without saying that this is different from strolling a private residence with the freedom to ruminate.
- kumarvvr 5y agoIt is true, in the sense that white men were the class that was privileged enough to have the free time to walk and think. Not all, but those who did were predominantly white.
- twelve40 5y agoWhat's a bit disgusting is that yes the privileged nature of thinking is of course accurate, and all the time before the 19th century was very oppressive to the women and other groups, but that's not quite relevant to the story of walking being good for thought. It's like in the USSR where Physics textbooks had to be prefaced with quotes from Lenin and Marx just to check off the current political agenda checkmarks and allow the otherwise completely unrelated to politics text to get published.
- keerthiko 5y agoThis statement is a bit broad and thus debatable in overall accuracy, but it is based on something real. It is probably overly centered on the western and white-centric world, since being white or not doesn't even come into question in many other parts of the world. But in the US/Europe... Women have been, for valid reasons and patriarchal overprotectiveness, been trained to feel vulnerable and exposed when walking outside. Always half-focused on who may be looking at them or tailing them, it takes away the mental freedom needed for perambulatory reflection. Black men, brown men, immigrants, similarly, have over time faced a variety of hate crimes and false incarceration, that they must again often pay attention to their perceived "suspiciousness" factor, such as wandering around late at night with a hoodie on, or idly staring into a park where kids may be playing, lest they be mistaken for a latent criminal and get apprehended or worse. So "walking has been the privilege of white men" is a bit of an extreme, but "justifiably walking thoughts free with impunity" is indeed the privilege of white men in the lands of white men.
- js2 5y ago> Women have been, for valid reasons and patriarchal overprotectiveness, been trained to feel vulnerable and exposed when walking outside. Been trained? “10 Hours of Walking in NYC as a Woman”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1XGPvbWn0A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1XGPvbWn0A
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- keerthiko 5y agoYep, looks like "getting trained by valid reasons" to me.
- bryanrasmussen 5y ago>This statement is a bit broad and thus debatable in overall accuracy the statement is very broad and as such laughable. Basically it implies history is something that has existed in the last few hundred years in the Americas. It's ridiculous enough it could easily fit in a satirical skit. >"justifiably walking thoughts free with impunity" is indeed the privilege of white men in the lands of white men - maybe lose the 'thoughts' there yes, I can agree that was what was meant and it is correct, it was just phrased so badly that it should prompt guffaws of laughter instead of nods of agreement.
- jiocrag 5y ago“Come on…” said every person uncomfortable with the brutal history of race relations and living in denial about its long term effects.
- betwixthewires 5y agoOr maybe, and this might sound outlandish, we are tired of the tendrils of this insidious beast infecting every single thing. Walking. Walking? Yes, walking. "Come on" is right.
- jiocrag 5y agoTendrils of an insidious beast? A bit dramatic? What are you including in said “insidious beast?” Any mention of a racial past is representative on an evil monster seeking to pervade all culture? I think you’ve been watching too much hentai.
- betwixthewires 5y agoDramatic? Maybe. But definitely not an overstatement, and nowhere near as dramatic as ideas like all social dynamics are oppressor/oppressed social dynamics, or that for example black people cannot walk around and therefore white people have privilege to walk around and therefore think and reason. I don't mind mention of a racial past, as long as it is actually applicable. Want to talk about slavery in the Americas? Jim Crow and segregation? European colonialism? The Maori genocide on the Moriori people? Sure, we can talk about it. But Walking? Yes, walking apparently. An attempt to cram racism into every facet of life, even where it didn't exist and doesn't belong, is absolutely 100% and evil monster seeking to pervade all culture. I don't watch hentai.
- jiocrag 5y ago"or that for example black people cannot walk around and therefore white people have privilege to walk around and therefore think and reason." Dude... go walk around in Compton or Fuller Park and tell me you're able to ruminate like Darwin LOL. You're trying to ELIMINATE race from every conversation because of your sensitivity. No one is "cramming" race anywhere.
- betwixthewires 5y agoMy words exactly, I even considered leaving a comment on the issue but decided to leave it to you I guess. The author of this should've taken a walk before writing this, you've got to trudge half way through to finally get to the point, which is apparently "someone who walks to think walked to think on why we walk to think"
- psychomugs 5y agoA great many of my female friends in [Asian country] basically expect to be harassed or asked to go to a "hotel" at least once when they're out and about. It's easy to roll our eyes at statements like these but that just feels like adding on to the issue.