The Flesh-To-Steel Ratio
Being an exceedingly slow reader, I’m still reading Fatu-Hiva by Thor Heyeredahl, and last night he was talking about how funny it is that we put engines on our bicycles, then grow fat sitting in our motorized vehicles. Out of shape, we go to the doctor or personal trainer, who tells us to purchase a bicycle without wheels so we can get some exercise. Hmmm.
In fact, Thor’s assertion was that civilization’s idea of progress consists of anything which reduces the amount of muscle we must use in life.
What an ironic situation! Isn’t this the story of our lives? When I spent my summer in the woods, life was pretty simple. When I was hungry, I went and picked some berries or gathered clams in the streams. (Or, in one instance, I was lucky enough to find a dead snake on a road, which made a tasty meal.)
Now, thank goodness, I’m back in civilization. If I want to eat, all I have to do is get in my car, drive to the grocery where I can spend money on any food I want, then drive home again and cook the food on a stove powered by gas which is brought to my house by trucks that bring it from the natural gas refining plants (you can get a feel for how complicated this one step in the process is by visiting this site.)
In fact, almost any basic life function rests on a huge chain of people, trucks, machines, and factories that provide for our ‘basic needs’. Consider that you can go out into the woods, and in an afternoon you can create a home that will be cozy, warm, and waterproof all year round.
Or you can build a house. Think about what is necessary to build a house. If you follow the chain, you’ll probably be surprised.
To take something easier, just think of purchasing a bottle of wine. Follow the chain, and you’ll soon find that you are paying an incredible amount of people when you purchase that bottle – vintners and barrel makers and loggers and glass factory workers and graphic artists and numerous organizations that monitor trade and . . . the list goes on.
All of this technology and civilization is supposed to make life easier, but it seems like we’ve gotten ourselves into a tangle, because most people have to spend almost all of their time and energy trying to upkeep this vast infrastructure that we ‘need’ to survive.
The Ratio
My dear friend Chris and I once came up with something we called the ‘Flesh-to-Steel ratio’. It’s a great way to get in touch with how much infrastructure you use. It’s also a good tool for any of us to recognize how ingrained we are with the world in general.
At its most basic, the Flesh-to-Steel ratio asks us to look at how much ‘material’ (or ’steel’) we personally own (’steel’ refers to any material, such as wood, plastic, metal, stone, etc.). You can imagine the weight of your vehicles, your home, and your possessions. The size and weight of your home and vehicles will be, for most people, the largest source of ‘steel’ weight.
In a basic sense, your Flesh-to-Steel ratio tells you something about the impact you’re making on the environment (of course, this can be altered by higher efficiency homes/vehicles, but you get the point). It can give you a different feeling when you sit down in your car – take a look at the sheer mass of metal and plastic that you’re relying on instead of your leg muscles. Quite a bit of steel just to get us from one place to another, isn’t it? Even if you’re driving a Mini.
Going Deeper
On another level, the Flesh-to-Steel ratio can teach us a lot about interconnectedness. It’s a fun game to play, and you can do it with anything. Of course, in the end you’re going to find that your bottle of wine is dependent on the entire universe for its existence, but don’t just skip to the end of the game. Play it a bit. As you pop an olive into your mouth, start tracing it back on its journey. Where was it grown? Who picked it? Who owns and maintains the land? What animals are needed to keep the whole olive-tree ecosystem alive? How about the salt? Where did this come from? The glass jar? You’ll discover hundreds of people, huge factories, and vast social institutions behind even the most common item you use. It’s quite amazing to consider, actually, and playing this game gives us a feeling of how any given ‘thing’ isn’t really the isolated object it seems.
It can give you a great laugh, too, when you realize how all these ‘helpful’ items in our lives actually make our lives much more complicated.
Progress is anything which reduces our need to use our muscles. Then we get exercise equipment and gym memberships in order to use the muscles which are atrophied because of our constant pursuit of ‘progress’.
And the most ironic thing is that we end up paying money not only for the items that make us soft, but for the gym memberships to try to rebuild our muscles!
Funny creatures, humans. One could almost write a book about the most backward species in the universe, but no one on other planets would probably believe that such a creature could possibly exist . . .
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