Temperance

Temperance is a strength of character recognized by most every person and religion on the planet. Temperance is knowing when one is satisfied with our eating and drinking choices before we pay the price from the Law of Diminishing Returns. In our western society the highest form of evaluation for any investment involves the concept of maximizing gains and minimizing costs. If the value of the limited resources of this planet were given a proper "cost input" into our goods, we would not have ravenously plowed down over half the rain forest for our hamburgers.

An overly indulgent species with a population explosion cannot survive when resources are limited.  That same species needs to allocate and consume these resources to preserve its sustainability. A good planetary hygiene would be to have us all assert more moderation in our treatment of the planet's resources.

The ancient Greeks in the days of Pythagoras considered that Temperance or Moderation was the very first of the "Cardinal Virtues". The first requirement of any philosophy should be to control our own animal passions before we can cultivate our convictions and live justly.  A healthy mind and body are first necessary to having right thoughts and actions. The very success or failure of your philosophy will manifest itself in both your appearance as well as your conduct.

To Epicurus, the elimination of bodily pain (Aponia) came before one could eliminate mental anguish and achieve and the imperturbable state of Ataraxia, the highest goal.  The pains of our body can be eliminated with proper nutrition and exercise. We can choose to ingest food that will awaken our minds or clog our arteries.

Socrates said that "the unanalysed life is not worth living." Moderation is a consequence of the self-analysed life. If you know yourself, you will know a healthy diet precedes a healthy life. Heart attacks, cancer, and diabetes kill almost 10 times more people than cigarettes! These 3 diseases are directly connected to what we are eating.

According to Wikipedia, "There has been an increase in obesity-related medical problems, including type II diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and disability.^[15] In particular, diabetes has become the seventh leading cause of death in the United States,^[80] with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimating in 2008 that fifty-seven million adults aged twenty and older were pre-diabetic."

The United States population now has the highest obesity rates in the world with 2 out of 3 overweight and 30% being obese. Oddly if you go from Seattle to BC Canada on a short drive north up the I-5, where it is colder with presumably less to do, the obesity rate sharply declines to 19%. Cold, boredom or even genetics do not explain obesity differences between these two major cities. Both have cold weather that is similar. Both offer a great variety of things to do to avoid boredom. What's dramatically different between these two nearby cities are the eating choices. The difference between the diet of a Canadian and an American is seen in the smaller restaurant servings you will find in British Columbia versus Seattle. Americans are just eating way more than the rest of the world.

Foods containing excessive sugars and fats are simply unhealthy. And, we are seeing a historical increase in the amount of fat and sugar consumption. In 1900 the average person ate only 4 lbs of cheese per year. Now that figure is 33 lbs and heart disease is now the #1 killer.  The China Study ,which drew on the research of 65 countries and is the largest scientific study conducted regarding international diet, learned that sugar intake is the root cause of the major rise in cancers in the US with one out of every four people dying from cancer. The science findings are clear and decisive. We must moderate our meat based diets and decrease our sugar intake if we wish to avoid most cancers and heart disease.

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The Purveyors of Poison

The wolves in sheep's clothing.

I recently saw a bar in the heart of an alcoholic community of vagrants in Portland Oregon calling itself "Rock Bottom."  Another bar was called "Thirsty." How did we get to the point when products are promoted based on the very qualities we want to avoid? Names like Big Boy and Big Macks come to mind. Destructive behaviors are being comically played off as admirable. Moderation is becoming increasingly difficult as we are surrounded by flashing banner ads and booming commercials that celebrate indulgence not restraint.

Let's all wake up!  Unfettered self-indulgence is plundering the planet.
FACT: Since 1900, 80% of the rainforest has been cut down to grow cattle for a population that has tripled in size.
FACT: 55% of all the wildlife have been killed by humans since 1970 to meet the demands of our meat-based diets.

We should be ashamed! Instead, of developing a unified shame for gluttony we have developed a culture where more IS considered better. Vice and Virtue have reversed meanings!

If you light up a cigar in an elevator, you will have everyone screaming at you to put it out. Maybe the same kind of moral indignation is we should feel towards shameful undisciplined lifestyles . Our appetites are mowing down the rain forest and draining the last available clean water for future generations. Indignant yet? You should be.

Perhaps if we redefine the problems of these people as vulgar and reprehensible they would not blame their diets on bad politics or Monsanto. Blame should be leveled on our own spending decisions. No one is forcing you to drink a Coke (which contains 9 teaspoons of sugar) or to eat that hamburger that requires 1300 gallons of water or the equivalent of taking 13 showers. You are the voter who decides what kind of society you will have and what kind of lifestyle you will have with the most powerful vote you will ever make - one made at the ballot box of your grocery store!

There is no dignity in self-destructive behavior. How many countless species have come before us and perished due to lack of food?  We come from a long road as humans from a world of too little, a world filled with famine for millions of years only to come to a place where we bear the insult of people drowning in abundance!

No thanks to our ravenous diets, we are burning down the forests and emptying the oceans of its fish for another tasty dish.  Over 56 billion farm animals are alive today waiting for their slaughter within the next year. If you were to stack all these animals upon one another, they would reach the Moon. (See Occupy for animals counter). 

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Are we the Modern Day Easter Island?

The Moai statues seem to cry out "you have been warned!"

We see in history that a population that over consumes quickly runs out of resources and quickly dies out. Such a dying out happened on Easter Island. Once the population reached some 30,000 inhabitants, sociologists believe the Island became too small for it's population. In a desperate attempt to avoid self-annihilation, they cut down the remainder of their food supplies to appease their gods with the construction of the foreboding statues called Moai.

Are we going the way of Easter Island? The scientific organization called The Global Footprint Network thinks so and the conclusive evidence suggests that an average American now requires some 10 hectares of land per person to support his diet. This is about 5 times more than the average person. Unfortunately, our planet cannot sustain more than 5 billion people at our present levels of consumption. According to the Global Footprint Network, if everyone on earth had the diet of an average American, we would need 5 Earths to produce enough food to feed everyone in the world today. Sandwich Earth is being rapidly consumed. Human history will sadly only leave an iron layer trace of the Anthropocene era. (For more details, see my blog on the Holocene Extinction.)

It is time to put Temperance back into the fashion of our philosophies. Our personal health, that of the planet and the future of the human species depend on it. Temperance is not just a good wholesome philosophy grounded in health, it is a desperate cry to the most moral obligation we have.
Without it, this species is doomed.