Natural Born Heroes by Christopher McDougall

What do the following have in common?

·         LeBron James

·         Brazil

·         Arthur Evans

·         Patrick Leigh Fermor

·         Tom Myers

·         Fairbairn & Sykes

·         Shanghai

·         Pankration (Greek)

·         George Hebert

·         Norina Bentzel

·         Xan Fielding

·         The Minotaur

·         Wing Chun

·         Steve Maxwell

·         The Arizona desert

·         John Pendleberry

·         a glass eye

·         Fritz Schubert, a/k/a “the Turk”

·         Erwan Le Corre

·         Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller

·         Dr. Phil Maffetone

·         Dwight Howard

·         William Banting

·         Hitler

·         Churchill

·         Crete

If you had a difficult time discerning connections, don’t feel badly about it (although the last three items provide a strong indication of one topic). These topics—among dozens of other possible examples—are tied together in the two books written by Chris McDougall as one book: Natural Born Heroes: How a Daring Band of Misfits Mastered the Lost Secrets of Strength and Endurance (2015). In this book, McDougall examines the German invasion and subsequent resistance movement on Crete during WWII. British Special Operations Executive (SOE) agents aided the Cretans during the occupation. These tales provide the central core of the book. Around this central core—fascinating and cinematic in its own right--McDougall constructs a second book about human performance from ancient Minoan culture to contemporary Parkour. In lesser hands this could have resulted in a mess, but as McDougall displayed in another favorite book of mine, Born to Run, he can weave and integrate stories as a master. The end result is a delightfully fun and entertaining book. 

Christopher McDougall. Notice the bare feet

The story of the invasion of Crete and the Cretan resistance probably isn’t well known among Americans, but it includes some incredible tales. Certainly the most astonishing feat—anywhere—involved successfully kidnapping a German general. The heist was conducted by British agents, led by Patrick Leigh Fermor, and Cretan resistance-fighters (and a largely sympathetic populace). Some may recognize Fermor as among the best English prose stylists of the 20^th century. His books include an account of his walk across Europe starting in 1933 (as a teenager) as well as accounts of Greece, monastic life, and the Caribbean. But one topic that he did not write at length about (other than in official reports) was his part in successfully kidnapping the German general and getting the general off the island of Crete to Egypt. (If you think that this begs for a movie, it spawned one long ago: “Ill Met ByMoonlight” (or “Night Ambush”), starring Dirk Bogarde as Fermor. Bogarde, by the way, was a dashing British film star of his era. Billy Moss, one of Fermor’s accomplices in the exploit, wrote the book.)

The film version with Bogarde as Fermor

The actual kidnappers of General Kreipe: Georgios Tyrakis, William Stanley Moss, Leigh Fermor, Emmanouil Paterakis and Antonios Papaleonidas

 But McDougall wanted to write a book about human performance, also. And so in recounting this tale of adventure—with lots of James Bond-like suave from the Brits—he also dives into the issue of how these men, Cretans and Britons, could have mastered such as harsh terrain while eluding capture by the forces of “The Butcher”, the other German general on the island. This tale of extraordinary human performance allows McDougall to tell about Brits learning to survive in the harsh Shanghai underworld of the early 20^th century; about how the Frenchman George Hebert developed and trained people to survive and thrive using nature as a training ground; about how Erwan Le Corre resurrected Hebert’s genius and brought it into the 21^st century; about how Tom Myers revealed that the fascia (connective tissue) provides the architecture and elastic energy that powers the human body; and about how Parkour demonstrates practical application of Myers’s insights about the elastic energy of the fascia. McDougall also hunted down the reclusive Phil Maffetone to learn about how he revolutionized diet and training techniques for distance runners like Stu Mittleman along lines that Paleo/Primal adherents will recognize as kindred thinking. And McDougall relates how distance running guru Dr. Timothy Noakes, the high priest of high-carb for distance runners, underwent a conversion of Pauline-like intensity to embrace a low-carb, high-fat “Banting” diet. (“I was quite wrong. Sorry, everyone.”) 

I could go on at great length about this book because it contains so many different angles, so many intriguing side-stories. But I will stop here to and sum it all up by saying that I found the book great fun. It provided well-told stories about fascinating stuff (WWII history and human performance are among my favorite topics), but even if you don’t’ share my predilections, I believe that most readers would enjoy this book. 

Side note: Because I didn’t read Born to Run but listened to it twice, I decide to listen to Natural Born Heroes. Alas, the listening experience was not as good. Mostly because the reader attempted—rather poorly—too many accents: British, Greek, American, French, and so on. He mastered none. Perhaps you’d have to get Meryl Streep or resurrect Olivier to do it right. In addition, because there was so much information, so much learning, I bought the book for my Kindle for my second and later readings.

A Toast to Capitalism--And Now Junk It

David Brooks: defender of capitalism & yet conservative

I want to take up David Brooks’s challenge set forth in his column “Two Cheers for Capitalism”. But let me first state my opening position:

Capitalism is the best form of economic system—ever. And it needs to be replaced. Starting now.

Brooks argues in defense of capitalism that its better than socialism. He doesn’t use the word “socialism”, but it’s implied when he writes “government planners are not smart enough to plan complex systems”. True but trivial. Centralized planning as an alternative to markets lost long ago. No serious commentator wants to restore central planning.

Brooks ignores the extent that business and government are  intertwined in early 21st century consumer capitalism. We delude ourselves in believing that mainstream economics, which provides the intellectual infrastructure for capitalism, could ever escape political economics. An economy is always nested within political and cultural systems. The most important intertwining of politics and government in the U.S. today has to do with regulatory capture, not regulatory restraint. Big government today is controlled by Big Money. Big Money includes individuals (yes, think Koch) and aggregates (trade organizations, corporations, etc.). Adam Smith, the intellectual godfather of capitalism, pegged it when he observed that when two or more merchants meet, the conversation would inevitably turn to restraint of trade. We could add "politicians" to any merchant or private interest, and we'd get the same effect. This happens--often--and we ordinary folks suffer for it. (For an enlightening—and frightening—discussion of regulatory capture and flaws in economic thinking, read Dr. Robert H. Lustig’s Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Suger, Processed Food, Obesity and Disease (2012) (review forthcoming)).

Brooks is correct that capitalism has lifted more people out of poverty than any time in history. As one currently living in China, I see proof everywhere of the power of consumer, market capitalism (for good and ill). But will it last?

Here I come to my greatest critique of contemporary capitalism: can this ride last? I do not (now) fear the backlash of resentment that growing inequality can spawn. Only a little of this has occurred yet. Humans are not the biggest challenge to the system, although this could change quickly. Rather, Mother Nature is the ultimate judge of capitalism.

I know that you’re thinking, “Yea, yea, and you forget the Ehrlich-Simon bet and how Ehrlich lost it—big time.” No, I don’t. Ehrlich lost within the time frame set for the debate, but Mother Nature doesn't recognize such puny time frames.

Every economic system extracts energy from the environment and returns entropic waste. Contemporary capitalism and its civilization do this more effectively than any other civilization. According to Dr. Joseph Trainer, Dr. Thomas Homer-Dixon, Dr. Jared Diamond, and Dr. William (Patrick) Ophuls, among others, no civilization has escaped the limits of the environment and entropy. It’s a social and environmental-economic challenge that capitalism has met better than any other system by using industrialization, rationalization, and technology. But no system—not even contemporary capitalism—can negate these limits. We’ve known about these limits in the form of global warming from dumping waste into our environment for over 20 years, but we've attempted to ignore it. Even the Pope, head of an organization not known for its embrace of cutting-edge science, has recognized the problem. (Pope Francis and his predecessors have long-recognized the corrosive social costs of capitalism.)

John Stuart Mill wrote about the need for a steady-state economy in the mid-19th century, well ahead of his time. We need to address these issues now. Endless acquisition and endless growth don’t square with the limits placed upon us by the natural world—the world of our atmosphere, our oceans, our lands, and our societies.

The hope I have is not for a revolution (or  rather only one seen only in the rearview mirror in slow motion). Nor am I a Luddite. Rather, we need to improve our lives by using what we have, consolidating our gains, and re-thinking some of our fundamental beliefs. This will be an immense challenge, but it’s a project that conservatives, like David Brooks (to the extent he’s really a conservative), should embrace. Not the factory, but the garden should serve as our guiding metaphor: we prune and graft and cultivate with the seasons, we don’t lay waste and move on. This is how capitalism must become something new. If grafted and cultivated along with democracy—real democracy—it could become something of lasting value. 

Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King

Published in 2014: A new twist for King

Stephen King has a way of writing about the mundane and the extraordinary, juxtaposing the two in a way that defies easy comparisons. In Mr. Mercedes, published in 2014, King enters the field of the hard-boiled detective novel, while both bowing to the past and updating the genre. In this book, King pits a retired, bored (almost to death) detective and a psychopathic young man, which America seems to produce far too often in recent times. (Of course, it doesn’t hurt the crazy cause that we allow almost unlimited armaments to anyone who wants to buy some.)

It’s a cliché, but I can’t help saying that King is a master storyteller. He draws in the reader by alternating between the twisted mind and world of a killer and more normal folks. I don’t know how accurate his portrait of a warped, young American male is compared to actual deviants of this type, but it sure seems real. And he creates ordinary, mostly good people who work to stop these evil deeds and restore some justice to the world. The main character, Bill Hodges, the retired cop, is a good, if flawed guy, who, like many of us, displays his best when engaged in doing what he knows best. And as in many a good detective story, the persons helping the detective provide contrast and aids to the hero-detective, in this case a bright young black man, a slightly crazy forty-something woman, and an attractive divorcee. King brings all of them to life, as persons you might meet in the course of day. Not extraordinary, but capable, sometimes in surprising ways when called upon to rise to a challenge.

King also provides a clean, well-connected plot and brisk pacing that gains tension and moves to thriller status as the story progresses. No wonder this guy sells millions and millions of books (not to mention the screen versions that they spawn). In this novel King has created an outstanding addition to the American version of the detective story, one that will certainly support more appearances of Mr. Hodges and his friends.