Notes on Muscle Memory

One of the main reasons for this exercise is to build enough muscle memory to resist the inclination to laziness while strengthening the resolve to write consistently, enough to form a reflex or behavioral impulse that makes the inclination to cave to idleness and do nothing little more than a faint husk of a whimper. 

Of course, the idea is that with just a little fortitude at the beginning, fortitude itself will no longer be necessary. After a few weeks or months or even a year, you won't have to conjure up the motivation or wherewithal to sit down and put something on paper, you worthless puke you.

Say that three times really fast and you may be more inclined than ever to develop a massive brain bubble and explode into 3313 tiny pieces.

But before I got way off track here and started getting pedagogical, I was going to make a point about muscle memory, and why on this MLK Day of all days, I wanted to explore the idea of firming up habits enough to make bad impulses an afterthought, even nonexistent. 

Humans have often told me through song and dance and Facebook post that everything is little more than a series of accidents and ultimately a bad joke, and there is really no hope of escape or outlet other than 1) accepting the chaos and joining the circus, or 2) doing everything you can to monkey up everything you can because nothing changes and there's no hope and why not it's really fun blah blah blah. 

Which to be honest, it can be really fun to muck things up. I have been stupid for much of my life, and I can attest to this fact and swear to it in blood if need be.

And, so, according to these people, for whom all hope was totally wiped out, perhaps even from the time they were first able to grasp that their parents were, in fact, not only totally ignoring them but willfully, even happily ignoring them, we are just cascading from one disaster to another, unable to actually do anything about anything because humans and nature and cause and effect and such. Ultimately, we live in a sad and uncontrollable universe where one event begets another. And making any effort to divert the stream and make things just a little more reasonable is both pointless and an intrusive effort of Red Red Red communism trying to infringe upon the very nature they rejected and suffocated so long ago. 

To me, this discounts the very idea of muscle memory, aka practice, aka behavioral science with a very fell and ignorant swoop. I understand that ignorance and attitude, sure. But to completely replace any opportunity to change or improve or make things just a little more bearable or manageable with some nonsensical nonthinking nihilist approach makes us really nothing more than wild hyenas subject to the whims of a harsh and unforgiving world. It's self-fulfilling, and breaking people out of that death cycle is going to take, you guessed it, some good old-fashioned muscle memory building. 

Muscle memory is a fairly simple concept, is it not? It refers to the act of improvement by repetition, the development of muscles (habits) and consistent actions that either improve performance, prevent or mitigate disaster, or both.  It's practice. It's what you do after recognizing a problem or need. At first, building muscle memory is a reaction. But over time, it becomes a practiced and (ideally) widely-accepted and acceptable tool for making things just a little less awful and a little more fair (fairer, for the grammatically inclined). 

Now, I know that word strikes fear, no, RAGE, in the hearts of many a libertarian. And rightfully so, After all, it involves time and effort and perhaps even (gulp) an investment of resources to accomplish its ultimate objective. This is contrary to the notion of doing nothing and letting things work themselves out. It flies in the face of the Invisible Hand, which so many rely on and hide behind and use as cover for doing nothing and going nowhere. And, to be honest, it is pretty comfortable back there. I more or less lived in that spot for a long time. VERY COMFORTABLE.

And don't forget those time-honored chestnuts of "My Rights" and "Choice," rhetorical missives launched from faraway silos and used to slay the very notion of change or equality or equitability or improvement or clean water or anything resembling something that might someday make me a little uncomfortable, all with one impossibly tidy explosion that neatly wraps things up and puts you (I see YOU, liberal) in your place.

But, despite the fear and pushback an idea like muscle memory may evoke in the uninclined, I struggle to see how we can move forward without it, at least nominally. True, not all muscle memory is positive. History has shown time and again that muscle memory can be wielded by the state or authority or just those with numbers and/or more effective killing and torture apparatus as a tool of power, control, and plain self-interest. And muscle memory harnessed and reinforced at the end of a gun or cannon or whip or any instrument of fear and pain is never, ever ever ever ever good.

(how you can you possibly throw a "But" in here?)

But (goddamnit), when positive muscle memory machinery is worked into the processes and methods and systems that have for so long given extended like to the inequalities and injustices so deeply entrenched and reinforced in our little experiment, perhaps we can begin to establish and strengthen and grow something better. We not only build a system that establishes positive muscle memory, but reinforces and grows the bulwark that prevents rot from seeping back into the system. 

Perhaps. 

I'm getting to a point in this screed where things are beginning to seem a bit forced. But I do want to add a critical point before making my way to other endeavors that will ultimately make me very unhappy if I don't attend to them soon. 

This country (experiment, mess, what-have-you) was built on a lot of bad ideas, and in many cases by a lot of bad people. But there is an idea often lost in that melee that I believe undercuts the persistent case to do nothing and avoid anything uncomfortable simply because it's all chaos and ultimately hopeless. 

It's the one that says maybe the country or people don't have to tumble from one calamity to the other and just pray that things will get better or that the bad fortune will break enough to provide some temporary calm. Buried in everything is the notion that instead of subjecting ourselves to one tyrant after another, and just accepting that fate, perhaps it's possible to build a framework that, at the very least, slows things down, perhaps even enough to lift a few people up and prevent a bit of suffering. Perhaps, just perhaps, we can develop some guide rails and bulwarks and systems that at least make things more bearable. And perhaps if we continue to strengthen that framework over time, we can create something that actually withstands the tumult of time and chaos and disaster, and gives us a chance to move forward. 

At least until the meteor hit. 

Til Tomorrow