To some exercises, I have assigned a new identification number since they have slight modifications, and to others I have left the same number, precisely to relate them to the other 2 posts mentioned. The present combination that I have arranged in this series of exercises is very appropriate for the body parts that we are trying to strengthen before starting a walk.
As in the previous ones, it is important that we perform several series of these because one aspect that is generated with the performance of exercises -whatever they are- is the constant repetition of them, which leads us to create a habit, which is positive; however, we will have to be attentive if we begin to perceive some monotony, to alternate them.
These and all the exercises we recommend should be based on the fundamental principle that they should be performed in a harmonious way with respect to the vertical axis or alternating the 2 respective symmetrical limbs (Post THE SYMMETRY OF THE BODY, ITS BALANCE AND WALKING).
Walking is a natural exercise in the human being, so no pre-heating is required; however, the following exercises are recommended for any type of walking, although they are not essential.
They can be performed according to each person’s needs and physical condition. One only, two of them or several.
We must consider that each person can make some modifications to the exercises, according to their needs, their comfort and their unique way of adapting to them, in terms of duration, style and sequence; however, in generic terms, they should be performed as close as possible to what is specified, detailed and explained. Each individual has his or her own characteristics that guide him or her to perform the exercises in a very personal way, making it difficult for everyone to perform them in the same way, and it is practically impossible to put them into practice in an exact and identical manner.
To maintain a strong and healthy back, as well as the waist, hips and legs, the following exercises are recommended:
The WALK-RWD System is structured with the 3 activities of reading, writing and drawing to boost the cognitive function of the human being. In the same way that I have pointed out that creative thinking is increased, enriched and flourishes substantially with the practice of this System, performing any of the 3 structured activities of reading, writing and drawing, while walking, generates in the brain an enlargement in mental capacity that facilitates and enhances learning.
It is very important to point out what we mean by creative thinking and cognitive performance. Both functions -the creative and the cognitive- are intimately correlated in mental performance within the brain organ, in a wide and subtle network of relationships with other physiological systems.
In Post, THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM ENCOURAGES CREATIVE THINKING. PART I, I have already described and explained -in a basic and preparatory way- how the WALK-RWD System stimulates creative thinking, as a fundamental function of our brain. Brain Cognitive Functions are commonly identified with the activities of the general concept of learning, however, they are much more complex than that mental performance.
To be able to abound in their scope and understanding, we will group them in 5 organic-mental capacities:
Reasoning is the mental activity that allows us to think, reflect and meditate, functions that flow; [Developing and Expanding Reasoning].
Memory is the mental function that facilitates learning, repeating, remembering, and forgetting; [Increasing and Improving Memory].
Attention enables curiosity, observation, analysis, interest, and distraction; [Directing and Controlling Attention].
Speaking allows us to talk, dialogue, express, communicate, explain, articulate, listen, respond, and be silent; [Enriching and Perfecting Communication and Listening]; and
Behavior enables us to regulate and control behavior and attitudes; [Orienting, Regulating and Redirecting Behavior].
Before moving on to the topic of how to stimulate and increase our cognitive performance, I would like to point out the functional modules into which the human being is divided.
The functional modules into which we can differentiate the human being can be seen in the following scheme:
Our topic is located in the MENTAL functional component of the human being, and as an introduction I would like to describe some important aspects about the functions of the brain.
The brain is the main organ of the Central Nervous System, coordinating and regulating most of the functions of the mind and body. These functions under its control are of 4 types: a) Higher Functions, such as reasoning, thinking, memorizing, attention, speaking, creativity, imagination, perception, decision making, intellectual intelligence, emotional intelligence, emotional behavior; b) Vital Functions, such as heart rate, breathing, digestion; c) Essential Functions, such as sleeping, sexual arousal, sweating, hunger; and d) Secondary Functions, such as yawning, sneezing.
The Higher Functions develop in the brain itself, in each and every one of its cranial sections; in the encephalon, cerebellum, its hemispheres, lobes, hypothalamus; of all of them, the cognitive functions are surely the most important ones that develop in the human brain.
Higher Mental Functions develop in the cerebral lobes being an important part of the cerebral cortex. Of all of them, the cognitive functions are considered transcendental because thanks to them the human being can adequately perform the activities of reasoning, memorizing, speaking and behaving in the external physical environment and in society in general.
As we have already mentioned, the cognitive function of the human being is located in the MENTAL component and this Post is directed to how to stimulate and increase this fundamental function of the brain.
I must state that any mental function we wish to promote will be interrelated with the rest of the other functions of the mind; therefore, we will try to differentiate the cognitive ones in order to better understand and apply the WALK-RWD System, in terms of the procedure and its inherent actions. In the same way, it is important to point out the differences that exist between the creative (Post THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM ENCOURAGES CREATIVE THINKING. PART I; Future Post THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM, CREATIVE IMAGINATION AND INSPIRATION (inventiveness and intuition) and the cognitive.
Creative thinking (being able to imagine, devise and create, and being able to generate and foster creation), which is also part of the mental component, giving rise to the function of creativity (ability to be pristine creative) has already been analyzed in Post THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM ENCOURAGES CREATIVE THINKING. PART I, and we will continue to analyze it in Future Post THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM STIMULATES CREATIVE THINKING. PART II, analytical and evaluative work that will be easier for us, both in its development and in its understanding because we will have presented in this Post what the cognitive function consists of.
The brain carries out, in an interrelated way, the 5 cognitive functions that we have pointed out: reasoning (thinking, reflecting, meditating); memorizing (learning, repeating, remembering, forgetting); attention (curiosity, observation, analysis, interest, distraction); speaking (talking, dialoguing, expressing, communicating, explaining, articulating, listening, responding, keeping quiet); and behavior (regulation and control of behavior, attitudes).
In general, these cognitive functions allow us to react appropriately to stimuli and external agents, and they are all interrelated.
We must clearly define what we mean by cognition and what is cognitive performance. Cognition is the action and result of having knowledge of something, and cognitive performance is the mental capacity to possess knowledge, and not only to possess it but also to get it, keep it (but not immobilize it), master it, enjoy it, use it and benefit from it. As we can observe, our objective of achieving a cognitive performance, represents more complicated and elaborated mental PERFORMANCES AND TASKS than the simple purpose of possessing knowledge by any means, which the System technique provides us with by reading, writing and drawing.
As we have already expressed in several previous posts, the mental functions are encouraged, strengthened and ablated in different ways according to the positions of the body. Let us see the extent and mechanisms of this.
There is no doubt that there is a differentiated expression and physical results for the activities that we develop due to the different positions in which we place our body, whether sitting, lying down or standing, and each of these with its unique variants. Sitting can be on the floor, on a chair or on any other medium. Lying down can be on the floor, or on a hammock, a bed or any device that can be used for it; and finally we can be upright in a static state (stationary, immobile) or in movement, the latter could be walking (slow, fast) or running (slow, fast).
Custom, tradition and our physical and mental capacities have oriented us to perform certain activities more in one position than the other.
The activities of writing and drawing are mainly performed seated and on a desk or any other suitable medium, since we need to place the sheets of paper on a firm, flat surface.
Reading has always been done either sitting down, placing the document on a flat surface or holding it in our hands, or lying down, which allows us to be comfortable reading it and holding it in our hands.
Sitting seems to be more appropriate for reading, writing and drawing, and more so if we are interested in doing some other activity in parallel. However, according to my personal experience, which I do not oppose anything to these comforts, doing these 3 activities while walking generates a stimulus to my brain capacities in many and varied ways. One of them is in the cognitive aspect, which is part of the mental functions that are generated in the brain.
I have no doubt when I need to develop certain physical activities simultaneously, which do not require greater mental or intellectual effort; it is convenient to do it sitting or standing in a stationary manner. The same happens when you need to perform a delicate task such as drawing, where skill and care are very important in its optimal development and quality.
Regarding drawing, let us remember what we have said about it: “About drawing what we wish to transmit is that we can all emit and communicate ideas and thoughts that are differentiated from words and verbal labels. That is, to the extent that we can separate our thoughts, ideas, concepts, knowledge, manifested in our mind as words or oral messages, and only represent them as images or drawings, to that degree we will be fulfilling our objective. Note that in no case we have asked or suggested to draw something that is traditionally requested when teaching the techniques of drawing, to represent objects of reality, the more perfect and precise we achieve it -it is said- the better qualification we will have in this gift of drawing. However, our task with this Integral System is not that”.
Thus, the only thing we need to do is to draw the graphic images that come to our mind, forgetting about perfection, for which we do not need to be seated. We can do it by walking.
So we do not need to sit or stand statically to be able to read, write or draw, we can do it walking.
In short, we can say that movement (walking) and our posture (sitting, lying down or standing) have direct effects on cognition and creativity.
This is how the System in its multiple practice, with the 3 structured activities of reading, writing and drawing, we can potentiate these 5 composite cognitive functions, as well as their cognitive performance. The latter is the result that is obtained when we perform walks conjugated with any of the 3 structured activities within the System, since it generates greater capacities of understanding, comprehension, development, lucidity, discernment, reasoning, sharpness, penetration, harmony, ingenuity, in each and every one of these 3 activities. The senses, both external and internal, are sharpened when we walk and perform simultaneously any of these 3 activities.
By way of resolution regarding the different positions that our body can have and their different cognitive effects -in addition to the creative ones-, we can say:
Reading sitting is not the same as reading walking.
Writing while sitting is not the same as writing while walking.
Drawing while sitting is not the same as drawing while walking.
We could even predict that it increases intelligence, both mental (intellectual) and emotional. We could also venture to say that if we do a walk associated with more than one of the 3 structured activities, it is more beneficial to the performance and development of cognitive function.
Now we can move on to develop the main theme of this post: How to stimulate and increase our cognitive performance.
We have already mentioned that the coordinated movement that is generated in walking causes the brain to produce various substances (ENDOCRINE SYSTEM) such as Endorphins, Catecholamines, Adrenaline, Enzymes, Pheromones, Glycogen, Immunoglobin, Interferons, Lymphocytes, Myoglobin, Neurotrophins, etc., (Post THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM AND THE SELF-PRODUCTION OF ORGANIC SUBSTANCES), which in turn stimulate the development and full functioning of neurons, considerably increasing the number of connections between them and the functional areas of the brain itself.
I want to emphasize that all the development that will be exposed on the concept of “stimulating cognitive function” can and can be used in the same way to positively impact the other brain functions.
We must also take into account that the practices that we will point out from this moment on, are performed while walking. And furthermore, that the 5 groups of the organic-mental capacities that are performed within the cognitive function, are performed in a shared, concurrent and simultaneous way, usually without a specific differentiation between them, however, our practices are recommended to raise their performance in these functional groups:
1. Developing and Expanding Reasoning.
2. Increasing and Improving Memory
3. Directing and Controlling Attention
4. Enriching and Perfecting Communication and Listening
5. Orienting, Regulating and Redirecting Behavior.
Some of these aspects have been dealt with in previous posts and we only have to refer to them (Post UPDATED DYNAMIC INDEX OF POSTS 1-120); however, and unfortunately others are dealt with in future posts and we will have to await their publication.
In the cases we have already dealt with, we will only give some concrete ideas of their application. For the treatment by future posts we will indicate approximately the date when we will publish that practice.
Developing and Expanding Reasoning
This function has also been pointed out and qualified as Creative Cognition (CC), that is, it is the capacity we have to apprehend with effective imagination and creativity, relying on more efficient models to do so.
Mobility is a cognitive mechanism, as it drives thinking, reflecting, meditating, as well as comprehension, understanding, lucidity, discernment, acuity, penetration and ingenuity, functions that are enhanced by combining walking with the 3 structured activities within the WALK-RWD System, reading, writing and drawing.
Posts already published and to be published that relate this group of cognitive function:
Future Post: THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM, CREATIVE IMAGINATION AND INSPIRATION (inventive and intuitive) (March 2024)
Future post: THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM AND THE ANTAGONIC CHARACTER OF THOUGHT (2025)
Future Post: BRAIN GYMNASTICS WHILE WALKING-EXERCISES (April 2023)
Future Post: WALK-RWD SYSTEM ENCOURAGES CREATIVE THINKING. PART II (September 2023).
Future post: EXERCISES ON COGNITIVE SENSE USING THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM (2025).
Increasing and Improving Memory
There is no doubt that walking generates an increase in memory and therefore in cognition and learning.
Posts already published and yet to be published that relate this group of cognitive function:
Future post: THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM AND MEMORY, WEAKNESS AND DISORDERS. YOUR ATTENTION. (2024)
Future Post: THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM AND THE EXERCISES ON MEMORY (2025)
Future Post: BRAIN GYMNASTICS WHILE WALKING-EXERCISES (April 2023)
Future Post: THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM AND EXERCISES ON MEMORY (2024)
Future Post: EXERCISES ON COGNITIVE SENSE USING THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM (2025)
Directing and Controlling Attention
In this section we look at how to improve the difficulty we have in directing and controlling our attention and our thoughts on any given subject, topic or object.
The mere fact of standing up causes a state of alertness in our brain that awakens other neuro-physiological systems that increase our attention. Mostly we achieve this when we start walking and even more if we start reading, writing or drawing. The movement of our body impels the brain to put itself on “guard”. You will get closer to beneficial things and move away from dangerous things.
Posts already published and to be published that relate this group of cognitive function:
Future post: THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM AND CONCENTRATION. PART II (2025)
Future Post: WALKING AND THE STOICS (2024)
Future post: THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM AND Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) (2025)
Future Post: BRAIN GYMNASTICS WHILE WALKING-EXERCISES (April 2023)
Future post: EXERCISES ON COGNITIVE SENSE USING THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM (2025).
Future Post: EXERCISES ON THE EMPTY OR VACUUM SENSES USING THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM (2026)
Enriching and Perfecting Communication and Listening
Many of our intellectual-linguistic inabilities come from an inner refusal to listen to our peers, to our own body, even to obvious elements of the animal and plant kingdom. In this field we seek to improve these incapacities to enrich and perfect our communication towards the outside world and improve our wrong way of listening.
Posts already published and to be published that relate this group of cognitive function:
Future Post: EMPIRISM OR THINKING WITH OUR FEET (2024)
Future Post: WALKING AND THE WAYS OF FREEDOM (2025)
Future Post: EXERCISES ON COGNITIVE SENSE USING THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM (2025)
Future Post: EXERCISES ON APPROXIMATION AND HUMAN CONTACT, THROUGH WALKING (2025)
Future Post: EXERCISES OF THE SENSE OF EMPTY OR VACUUM THROUGH THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM (2026)
Orienting, Regulating and Redirecting Behavior
In a dynamic way we are permanently apprehending from the external world, and this makes us redesign our behavioral model before the physical and social environment. In fact, just walking after a long period of sitting changes our attitude towards others. Walking at a normal speed and then slowing down our walking speed generates new information that we receive and affects our behavior. It is an incontrovertible fact that a person who has not exercised in the mornings -for example- walking and suddenly begins to walk daily, produces in him molecular changes and leads to a change of behavior and this to changes in his personality.
Posts already published and to be published that relate this group of cognitive function:
Future Post: WALKING TOWARD THE CONCEPT OF FREEDOM. PART I. (2024)
Future Post: WALKING, BEHAVIOR AND CHARACTER. (2025)
Future Post: ROUTINE, CONDUCT, BEHAVIOR AND CUSTOMS. (2026)
Future Post: NEW MODEL FOR WALKING: FREEDOM AND LEISURE. PART III (2026)
Future Post: EXERCISES ON COGNITIVE SENSE USING THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM (2025).
Future Post: EXERCISES ON APPROXIMATION AND HUMAN CONTACT, THROUGH WALKING (2026).
Future Post: EXERCISES OF THE SENSE OF EMPTY OR EMPTY FEELING THROUGH THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM (2026)
As can be observed in the previous program, there are many future posts where we expose certain practices for the attention of these mental functions and human behavior, however, all of them -with specific exercises and recommendations- are always performed by walking in a natural way, with the exception of the routines that are recommended in the cerebral gymnastics that we experience walking out of the normal; so while we wait for your publications throughout the months, let’s start walking in a natural way, and with this we will have attended -practically and effectively- all these mental functions and our attitudes and personal behavior, printing them an excellent quality by walking, of increase, advance, improvement, development and perfection.
The phrase that defines the title can have several meanings. In this text, we will highlight 4 of those meanings, one of them is the one we exposed in Post READING-WRITING-DRAWING: VIRTUOUS CIRCLE. All individuals can create a force that upon repetition generates a virtuous circle of reading-writing-drawing that propels our unconscious to recover part of what has been stored or repressed by the consciousness and that it exposes it as graphic and mental images. That is to say, an effect is generated according to its material, spiritual or artistic essence, flowing through a “conduit” through which the different elements of knowledge and culture (*) are channeled. Through this “conduit” arrives, with a sense, the information to the human mind, and in the case, that concerns us: through reading, and once processed by the mind, flows out of it, through writing or other means, such as oral, images, pictures, drawings, etc. The information that arrives in our mind, through reading, is forged and remains pending and suspended in order to be used. What reading itself provides is an immense “arsenal” that can be used to generate any product, such as writing or drawing.
We said in that Post that these two activities, both reading and writing, are flows, and both are constituted by words and images. One of these flows has as its source of origin the mind of the individual, that is to say, it emerges from there, and the other flow has as its destination this same organ, that is to say, it converges to it.
(*)DEFINITION OF CULTURE: In order to clarify the concept of culture we will resort to what Paul Diel expresses: “Civilization is an intellectual formation; culture is a formation of the spirit. Civilization is the organization of the external world (social life); culture is the organization of the internal world (personal life). Civilization tends to satisfy multiple desires; culture tends to satisfy the essential desire. Diel, Paul, Psychoanalysis of divinity, F.C.E., Mexico, 1974, pp. 71-72.
The second meaning of the title was exposed in the same Post READING-WRITING-DRAWING: VIRTUOUS CIRCLE and we also ratified it in Post OTHER DEVICES TO READ AND WRITE, WHILE WE WALK; in both Posts, we explained that every good reader can become, sooner or later, a writer. For this point, it is enough to comment that the majority of great and staunch readers and recognized writers confirm it.
The 3rd meaning is the one that Borges has recurrently exposed in several of his essay-stories, arguing that writing is actually a re-writing of what we have read. This case is similar to the first; however, Borges stresses the tautological or repetitive character of books, warning that everything is already written in the literary world. It is a tautology because we write the same ideas of what we have read, changing formats, modes and styles, according to our own different perspective, although that is not our conscious intention.
And finally, the 4th meaning is related to the spoken word. We often find people who are eloquent; that is, they can express themselves in a persuasive and understandable way, and their audience is fully moved and interested. I believe that this eloquence comes, in addition to the speaker’s abilities, from his or her lively (lilting) manner and the emphasis he or she puts on his or her speech. As if each sonorous word he was reading aloud was being felt and tasted in his mouth. The “saying” of the eloquent speaker is a reading analogous to the rhythm of writing; it is as if he were writing it at the moment of reading-saying, carrying a cadence and a rhythm transmitted by the pen with which he writes.
I repeat: The emphasis that we transmit to our saying, is as if we were reading it at the rhythm that we write, giving precisely the emphasis to the words, as if we were writing them or giving life to that writing.
I don’t know if you, dear reader, have experienced the following: When we find a sentence or phrase that endorses and supports the writing we are doing, we want to quote it in it. When we start typing it, we enter a different dimension of understanding. As if the author of that locution was explaining it to us more clearly, and as far as I am concerned, I believe that this happens because when we write it we do it at a rhythm-cadence with which it has been thought and transmitted, and that is why it makes it more understandable. When we write it down, we are in exact harmony with the cadence and emphasis of the author, which gives us an understanding of what the writer wanted to transmit. Perhaps something like this happens with the eloquent speaker.
The better we assimilate the articulation and functioning of this reading-writing binomial, the better we will be able to advance in the joint development of these activities; which are intimately related, although we are not aware of it, since any of the 4 meanings we have outlined may be part of our personal inclinations.
No matter in which meaning we are immersed, we know that one leads to the other, but… let’s not forget to do it always walking.
Now then: why walk? From my own experience, when I walk and read, I enter in a deep dimension that places me in a space of absorption and in a lapse of time that stops. I compose myself in a state of abstraction that the reading begins to be in rhythm with my walk, with the cadence of my steps (Future posts EXPLORING OUR PERCUSSIVE MUSICAL WALKING; THE COMPÁS AND RHYTHM IN OUR WALKING). I just have to let myself be carried away by that compass that I achieve when I walk and read.
The same thing happens to me when I walk and write. The cadence of my steps brings me deep into my world of writing, and the theme I am developing in rhythmic consonance with my walking and my mind. This rhythmic beat absorbs me completely, creating a creative harmony and I lose track of space and time.
Surely there is a correlation between the number of steps and the words I read or write. I have not yet tried to quantify it, but I will do so in the future.
Let’s take a walk and enter that dimension by pacing our reading and writing -while walking- with our natural, very personal, special and unique rhythm and beat. Our steps are writing traces characteristic of our personality (Future Post PERSONALITY DEFINED BY THE WALKING RHYTHM). Let’s be walkers who read, ergo: writers who walk.
Aristotle founded in 334 B.C. his philosophical school in the Lyceum, an ancient promenade in Athens, which was referred to as the peripatetic school.
Peripatetism was constituted as a doctrinal system within the Aristotelian school -the Lyceum-, because the philosophers -teachers- with their students -and among themselves-, dialogued and discussed ideas while walking. Always walking around a space.
Probably this practice was derived from the word “peripatos” which was used to designate a “covered walk or path”. It may come from “peripatoi” which is how the covered portals of the Lyceum were designated; but this word was also used to designate Aristotle’s habit of walking under the fronds of trees while reading [Future Post WALKING WITH THE TREES]. It seems that in any of these cases it has to do with a path or road that is covered with something and also that one is walking a certain distance around a point, defined or not, that is to say, one is walking in a certain circular way (Future Post WALKING AND CIRCUMAMBULATION).
Etymologically, the word peripatetism comes from the Greek: from the prefix “peri“, around; the verb “patein“: to wander (to walk, to wander aimlessly, without a definite end); and the suffix “ism“: system, doctrine.
Although in most translations of Aristotle’s works not much attention is paid to the teaching method he used in the Lyceum, it is obvious that it was intimately related to his thought and the way he dealt with the special way of transmitting his ideas and specifically with the teaching of the lessons in his school, to all his students. Manual for Walking, Reading, Writing and Drawing (*).
Similarly it is called ACROAMATIC (or ACROMISM or ACROMATISM) to the method or teaching that uses speeches, explanations or narratives, communicating them orally; and it was also applied to the more private teachings that Aristotle gave to his special and favorite disciples.
It is interesting to investigate the purposes that led Aristotle to use this system of teaching. What little or much we elucidate in this regard, in the future, will be very important.
Undoubtedly (first elucidation) that in those times it was known what walking meant from the point of view of promoting the physical health of the body, but they were also certain (second elucidation) that the practice of walking provoked the incontrovertible gestation and flowering of ideas, the stimulation, and development of the memory, fundamental aspects in the development of the field of creativity (ideas, memory, inspiration, imagination, etc.) and learning, always looking for the superior thought.
We have already mentioned that the coordinated movement generated by walking causes the brain to “promote and transmit” the self-production of various substances through the endocrine system, which in turn stimulates the development and full functioning of neurons, greatly increasing the number of connections between them and the functional areas of the brain itself. There are several fields where we can appreciate the effect exerted by provoking the gestation of substances and neuronal processes, and where we can obtain positive and effective results in human behavior (Post THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM AND THE SELF-PRODUCTION OF ORGANIC SUBSTANCES). The field of creativity (ideas, memory, inspiration, imagination, etc.) is one of them. Let us keep in mind that ideas are vectors with their own energy and that they are in movement and therefore provoke stimuli to all areas of the organism and fundamentally to the brain (Post THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM ENCOURAGES CREATIVE THINKING). So much has been experimented that walking promotes the harmonious functioning of the cerebral hemispheres, that there is no doubt about it. Walking is an exercise that causes effects on the 2 symmetrical parts of the human body, so any exercise that does so, will have similar effects. (Post THE SYMMETRY OF THE BODY, ITS BALANCE AND WALKING).
On the other hand, in Ancient Rome we have Seneca, in the first century of our era, who commented that because of the love he had for letters he had become lazy and this made him neglect his health and his physique, which indicated that he should also take care of his body through exercise. He therefore decided to take a walk while reading, so as not to neglect his devotion, since in this way, in addition to taking away his laziness, it was good for his health.
He considered reading as the most important of his needs to be satisfied, since it nourished his spirit, but he should not only limit himself to reading, but should complement it with writing; he recommended that they should be combined alternately: what is gathered from reading should be used in a composition. And he recommended that man should ingest all kinds of knowledge and concepts to process them and make them tend to new ideas.
It seems that in both times and places (Greece and Rome) it was known (third and last elucidation) that the best and most effective teaching and instruction should be done while walking, communicating ideas and knowledge in an oral way, in a loud voice, narrating, explaining knowledge and experience, in order to transmit them with effectiveness and erudition (Post WALK AND READ IN LOUD VOICE; Future Post WALKING READING POETRY IN LOUD VOICE).
Let us imitate Aristotle and Seneca, by setting ourselves to read and write, while walking, and if possible, orally, aloud; and also, let us draw those images that come to mind, while enjoying a walk in the open air.
(*) Loya Lopategui, Carlos, Manual for Walking, Reading, Writing and Drawing, EMULISA, Mexico, 2016. Distributed by Amazon, available in Kindle Edition: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09K6N5FTL.
This post is the fourth of 9 that respond to a practical structure and are intended to present a new functional and social paradigm, which humanity requires to maintain, encourage and protect FUTURE DEVELOPMENT IN ITS WALKING.
It is also the number 124 that I have developed consecutively in the Blog with which 4 uninterrupted years with this theme on the walk of the human being.
This post could well be titled: HOMO SOCIABILIS OR SOCIALIS? HUMAN AGGRESSION WALKING AIMLESSLY, incorporates us in the future model of humanity that has much to do with these two apparently related concepts, but are intrinsically divergent; which leads us to ask: When we see a growing panorama of vulnerability and deterioration in “sociability” at the present time, is the human being really sociable by nature?
Much of the confusion on this issue of whether the human being is a social entity or not, comes from long ago, and rests in the very title of this post, so we must ask: What is social and what is sociable, so I think it is necessary from the beginning to define the concepts “sociabilis” and “socialis“, in order to convey the importance of walking in the future of humanity. These two words have been built up over the centuries, primarily since the Greeks. We can find these two concepts among the main ancient philosophers such as Socrates, Aristotle, Heraclitus, Plato, Thales of Miletus, Seneca, etc.; some analyzing them directly and others mentioning them indirectly.
On the other hand, also within this millenary culture, the word polis becomes relevant, which in Greek meant a grouping of people or entities, whether groups or villages. Of course, any polis was made up of individuals, where they interacted to achieve a common goal or several goals.
This human conglomeration is what later would be qualified as the sociability of the human being and would mean that every man united in collectivities is social and sociable by nature. Therefore, it is necessary to have a clear and precise definition of what is sociability, being sociable and being social, for this it is necessary to clearly understand some other concepts, such as human nature, instinct, conditioning, necessity and convenience, among others.
I will allow myself to briefly present these conceptualizations -but not definitions-, before entering into what we should understand by this term of sociability, in all its philological extension:
Human nature: it is the conception of what the human being has by essence in its pristine composition.
Instincts: They are the natural impulses that allow and encourage the human being to behave naturally, in his condition coincident with the animals.
Gregariousness: Proclivity of animals to meet with other elements of their own species, with diverse objectives. Propensity of animals to coexist in groups, essentially for their survival.
Social norms: Moral and ethical principles, values, rules of conduct, customs, uses and traditions, by which a group of individuals behaves, in a certain way, in a geographical environment to live together as a community.
What it is to be social or what it is to be sociable, orients us objectively and decisively to better understand the subject:
Social Being (socialis) refers to an individual who lives permanently by his nature and essence within a group of his own species. The Social Being (socialis) is a fraternal, loyal, supportive, unconditional, sincere, empathetic and cooperative individual, who is inclined to maintain bonds of coexistence in human groups.
The Sociable Being (sociabilis) is an individual who is friendly, amiable, affable, kind, cordial and affectionate, because he likes the treatment he receives in general terms within society, but it is not necessarily fraternal, loyal, supportive, unconditional, sincere, empathetic and cooperative, and thus coexists with other human beings to receive benefits that allow him to survive with greater comfort and security, besides helping him to more easily satisfy his needs in general, but he is not necessarily a social being by nature.
The Social Being includes the Sociable Being.
Now, sociability is an interaction and linkage of human beings with other individuals within their environment and represents a behavior that leads to association, company, mixture, identification, unification with other human beings, leading to coexistence relations, harmony, understanding, empathy; however, it also leads to diversity, differences, incomprehension, intolerance, disagreement, incompatibility and antipathy.
And it is precisely in the face of this position of ambivalence of behavior that the perspective of considering it as a natural but very contradictory human condition arises. That is to say, it has to live in society for its own survival needs, both individual and of the species.
Likewise, we must ask ourselves about this condition that we call “gregarious being”, which is attributed to human beings, both in a natural and forced way. In other words, is it an instinct or innate impulse (inborn, congenital) in human beings or a social conditioning, that inclination to be gregarious, sociable, to meet with their peers?
Of course, the human being behaves within society regulated by guidelines, principles and ethical and moral norms that dictate and induce him permanently on how he should behave within it, which transforms him into a very constrained and different being, surely, to what he would be if those rules of behavior did not exist.
The above invites us to mention what Aristotle said: “the human being is a sociable being by nature”; but not social. His statement does not mean that it is natural for him to be and to remain by taste within a plural relationship. I believe that the philosopher of Stagira was referring to the fact that for his own natural survival needs he would have to be in a society by force. Besides, there is that instinct to associate with a “couple” (companion, mate) of the opposite sex, for the procreation of the species; but, in both men and women, it is done for a determined time and for the continuity of the species. And I am not talking about the meeting of couples for love; that is another subject.
It is because of these social norms and customs, imposed throughout life and for multiple generations, that human beings conduct themselves within a particular society. This social way of behaving is acquired, learned, respected and developed throughout one’s existence. Commitment that each individual has to be able to obtain the diverse benefits within the social group that he/she has to live, learning to “be sociable” and exercising in the family nucleus to coexist in society with the objective of being able to survive.
Living within a community allows the human being to develop a self-imposed coexistence through the achievement of social values, such as the following:
HARMONY
PACIFISM
WELFARE
TOLERANCE
EQUALITY
SECURITY
FRATERNITY
SOLIDARITY
KINDNESS
RESPECT
BROTHERHOOD
COMMUNITY
CORDALITY
EMPATHY
COLLABORATION
HELPING OTHERS
BE GRATEFUL
AFFECTIONATE
COOPERATIVE
However, not all individuals can achieve this. How capable is the human being to carry out these ways of acting within any group of individuals? Is he/she incapable or moderately capable?
Because throughout their lives they come up against different obstacles, which society itself imposes on them or induces them to act with:
Indifference
Individualism
Impatience
Selfishness
Violence in general
Aggressiveness
Lack of civic education
Domestic violence
Lack of communication
Intolerance
Infidelity
Need for power
Inconsistency
Need to control
Need to avoid being controlled
To get out of the rules
TO DEFEND THEIR OWN INDIVIDUALISM
As a prescription, we can say that the human being must tend to the universality of social values. In the past, it was claimed that there were universal values, which characterized every human being, regardless of ethnic and cultural differences. It was also stated that a civic education and culture should be imparted, or that civics should be inculcated, trying to globalize this instruction within a civic statute or regulation. But, are all those social values that we have pointed out imputable to his pristine nature, or are they derived from an imposed conditioning, in order to be considered a social being?
It is undeniable that the individual being requires norms of behavior that subject and control him in his aggressive impulses, which is a consequence of the disharmonies and vices pointed out above and his habitual state of being selfish; and perhaps more imperative when he is gathered in small, medium or large groups; These selfish tendencies, which are present in their nature as part of their human genome (natural individualism, the gene of selfishness), cause the cohesion of harmony, which was the initial objective to coexist, survive and develop in community, to break down.
Usually, the final product will be an individual who must learn to coexist with others of the same species and to survive within a society, behaving obligatorily and complying with the imposed social norms, which shows that he is not born with that nature of sociability, but that he develops it as life goes by, since he needs to live within a society to survive and perpetuate the species.
The demonstration of this fallacy is in the growing number of people who prefer to live outside social norms, the high degree of criminality and aggression in today’s societies, especially among the most developed ones.
It is a very interesting controversy. To highlight this disagreement it is enough to point out two thinkers who have had relevance in their studies and conclusions they have formulated regarding the behavior of the human being: J.J. Rousseau and N. Machiavelli.
Rousseau said that the human being by nature is good, and also that society is the direct cause that transforms him into an evil being, since it teaches him that since he is born he must compete and win at all costs, among other impositions and coercions, demands, obligations, conditioning. While Machiavelli expressed that the human being is evil because of his pristine nature, explaining that for this reason he must be educated and regulated in his behaviors, since they are dangerous for society as a whole.
Underlining, being social (socialis) should be understood as the instinctive and natural search of being grouped or wishing to meet with several people, on a daily and practically permanent basis, becoming friendly and amicable, even becoming fraternal, unconditional, loyal, sincere, affable, affectionate; that is, different ways to the concept of being gregarious, where the individual usually seeks a group to defend himself and solve problems such as fear, the threat and aggression he suffers, etc., and in this way, the human being who belongs to the gregarious scale, does not stay within his group in terms of fraternity and empathy, but accepts to submit to certain rules, but not entirely, nor for a simple taste or attraction, as happens in sexual relationships, but to be within a group that gives him security and satisfaction to certain needs, which otherwise, he could not easily achieve.
We can affirm, in summary, that man is not a social being by his natural condition. Man is a sociable being by necessity. He is not inclined, by his natural condition, to meet with other beings of his own species, but is impelled to socialize by external stimuli, to seek protection, greater strength within a group to defend himself, to seek food, to preserve the species. There is no such instinct in human beings that impels them to be social; the only natural impulse that makes them come together is the sexual one, an instinctive need to mate with members of the opposite sex, for the preservation of the species (sapiens animalis = wise animal), for their survival like any other non-rational animal. In most cases, it seeks to maintain the family group because of the need to protect its progeny, until they become self-sufficient and independent.
We rule out that the human being has a social instinct; it is a learned behavior. That is to say, his need to associate in groups is a consequence of those parental affections that the individual receives from birth until he becomes independent and also a result of the filial feelings formed in him during that period. Following the Darwinian evolutionary theoretical line, we could say that this behavior has been the answer that the human being has been able to grant himself through thousands of years, providing himself with a “natural selection” that has allowed him to survive as a species.
What are the differences and similarities between being gregarious and being sociable? An example of the similarities and differences between them can be seen in their comparison with groups of specifically gregarious animals, both in the mammalian group (herds) and within insects (hives, swarms) and fish (schools), where this type of conglomerates abound.
In the animal kingdom these collective behaviors of cooperative nature are observed from the most exemplary insects, such as ants, bees, locusts, even in unicellular organisms, which also form colonies, to the largest mammals such as elephants, through the countless herds of quadrupeds, as well as within birds (migratory) and those of the marine kingdom, in which we can clearly observe the expression of the concepts of association and grouping for the organization of the tasks they develop as strategies as an instinctive instrument to survive and perpetuate their species. For these purposes, we must circumscribe both concepts to the aspect of human relations, within a group or a community:
GREGARIOUS: An individual is qualified as gregarious because he is part of a group or lives in a community, out of necessity. And the question is: Is it natural to be part of a human group? Someone could say that by defining the human being as an individual, he is not necessarily deprived of his gregarious part. Or someone else would say: this distinguishes him from the others in the group and he does not participate in the ideas of the others; hence his qualification as an individual being.
SOCIABLE: A person is sociable because he likes to relate to other people, and only that liking is the normal and natural thing to do. And the question is: Does he really like to socialize, or does he feel needed and obliged to do so?
Freud, in his book Totem and Taboo, expresses: “… man may not be a social animal, and yet live, like the gorilla, with several women of his own…”.
Since the most remote times, human beings have shown their inclination to encourage and strengthen this instinct to mate by means of magical and religious rituals, and by this impulse they live with the chosen couple (or several females) and their litter (progeny), for a peremptory time, while their descendants reach a propitious age to fend for themselves. By the way, it is important to note that it is the mammal that takes the longest time to get up and walk after birth. Could it be because it is one of the few mammals that walk upright only on its two lower limbs?
In fact, that idea that was formerly defined by Aristotle with his politikós anthropós (πολιτικός ανθρωπός), political man, introjected in the culture of the West, that man came to believe himself a gregarious being in essence (according to the Aristotelian definition) and not because of the 9 factors that I will point out below; from which we can derive, the importance of that praxis of politics, for the control of the collectivities, llinikés póleis (ελληνικές πόλεις): Greek cities – from the times of Hellenic cultural hegemony – and their division into social classes that would have no reason to exist, up to our days, with tints of coercion for the exploitation of the various castes and of the most unprotected individuals, considering slavery as a necessary economic good.
Is he sociable by nature, or is he simply a gregarious animal?
Man defined by Aristotle as politikó zóo (πολιτικό ζώο), political animal, is an appropriate epithet to disguise his predisposition to human hierarchy, for his society was under a slave regime, and he had to define, first of all and prior to his political ideas and considerations, that the human being must be hierarchically ordered. First of all, he had to catalog him as an essential part of a guild, collective unit, where by definition he needs to be within a group, and therefore, only in this way could he continue to exist under his “adulterated and imposed instincts” of being gregarious, since otherwise, he would cease to exist as a species.
It is a mistake to think that by its very essence, homo sapiens is a sociable being. This consideration can be analyzed starting from the hominids -associated ancestors of homo sapiens- who stood up, and placing themselves in an upright position, began to walk on their two feet, millions of years ago, since it is precisely in the great majority of archaeological cases that he has been found alone. In the closest findings in which homo sapiens -and his “erectus” ancestors- have been observed living together in a community, it has always been due to the effect of agents or stimuli external to their natural essence, or because of their sexual instincts to perpetuate the species.
The human being always looks for his convenience or individual benefit to make the decision to group with other individuals, in favor of the protection of his own goods and of his progeny, which as we have already said, is the sexual union and the family permanence, as the essential, natural or instinctive-animal union, for the procreation and survival of the species, inscribed in the genetics of any gregarious animal, including not only in the superior ones, but also in the inferior ones, from the unicellular to the ants and the other insects.
In all epochs, from the most remote to the present time, HOMO SAPIENS has grouped in different forms, due to stimuli that forced it to stay within a group. Let us see in a general way which have been those activities, collectivities and organizations with the passage of time:
In remote times:
– To move
– To hunt
– To gather
– To sleep
– To migrate
In less remote times:
– In caves
– To sow
– To harvest
– To worship their divinities
In more recent times:
– In dwellings and rooms
– Sales, inns, and inns
– Taverns
– In villages
– In sanctuaries
– In monasteries (isolated from urban communities)
– For transportation and travel (a great variety)
– Military barracks (To attack or defend)
In modern times
– In buildings
– Hotels
– Museums, theaters and circuses
– In large residential and condominium centers
– In churches, hermitages, mosques, synagogues and temples
– In stadiums
– In cities and large settlements
– For walking (a wide variety)
– Factories, companies and workplaces of all types
– Schools and universities
– Health centers and hospitals
All these physical environments constructed or adapted by the same human being contain several elements in common, which have induced and forced him to become a sociable being, but he is not instinctively social. Some instincts evident in the human being that allow his security, conservation and survival, respond to these “motivations” imposed – by the same environment or by his condition of survival – with actions such as fleeing, escaping, gathering, running, repelling, joining, defending, evading, abandoning, grouping, saving, etc. (Future Post THE WALK AND THE INSTINCTS).
The human being has been able and has allowed himself to be gregarious because of his great capacities of psychological induction since he possesses within himself several potentialities that can be transformed into “gregarious factors”; that is to say, each one of us keeps certain faculties -capacities or skills- of the psychological “stimulus” type, that for diverse factors: dysfunction, inactivity, ignorance, incapacity, impotence, lack of resources (low socioeconomic level) and emotional aspects such as loneliness, can be transmuted into incentives or real and effective needs of association or gregarious impulses, such as:
– Family community
– Professional associations
– Offensive and defensive military and paramilitary groups
– Labor or guild corporations
– Union and cooperative corporations
– Social circles
– Guilds
– Criminal associations
– Criminal gangs
– Charitable institutions
– Social groups
– Economic groups
– Livestock communities
– Political parties
– Communal groups
– Financial consortiums
– Artists’ associations
– Professional associations
– Agricultural communities
– Writers’ groups
– Societies Organizations Clubs
– Religious sects
– Commercial leagues
– Commercial societies
– Churches
– Ecclesiastical congregations
– Mystical brotherhoods
There are 9 common elements that transform the human being into a gregarious, sociable being, and generate a confusion about the conception of being social in its pristine essence, namely:
Each of these factors are universes of mechanisms that induce human beings to create units or modules of gregarious coexistence to defend themselves and manage to remain as a species.
“Freedom, physical and mental, is born with the human being, it is inherent to him. Any action against it is reflected in a setback in the evolution of the species.
These involutions invade the different psychomotor spheres, which are impacted by subtracting from the human being physiological, psychic, emotional and instinctual aptitudes, both at the individual and collective level.
It is not possible to distinguish with certainty in which of these spheres the impact of the loss of freedom is stronger, however, we must review the one where injuries can be caused whose damage is not easily reversible, or that endangers the existence of the human being, by attacking his instinct of reproduction and survival as a people and as a species. The sense of adaptation as an option for survival has been one of the ways that has shown the greatest damage to the human race; submission to dogma plays a determining role in the suppression of vital instincts, and thus in the prolongation of the status of servility and secular stagnation that peoples currently show” (Pueblos sin Instinto *).
If we carefully analyze each of these 9 vectors of gregarious necessity or convenience -which we should call gregariousness- we will clearly see that homo-sapiens-sapiens has developed within “collectivities” that have had their respective “external stimuli” to strengthen those dependencies and keep him always under the standards of submission of the 9 indicated inducers.
A typical example of this type of behavior is religious behavior, since it clearly combines several of these vectors: fear, pain and guilt; although some specialists in this field also include ignorance and economic benefit.
Another of these stimuli, loneliness (psychic), creates a clear image of what happens to human beings in general, since it generates an imperious need to get together, to associate and to awaken this gregarious need, since loneliness is truly an impulse from individuality to sociality. However, this stimulus can be manipulated as it is now by the mercantilist system that favors homogeneity. The fact that an individual walks in crowded places does not mean that he or she socializes or seeks to socialize. This inclination of seeking to walk where there are conglomerates does not demonstrate that men and women are social beings. In fact, it is when they find themselves in these types of conglomerate relationships that they most openly convey that they are not social beings.
This search may even be a natural and inborn response to achieve an emotional state of solitude.
We must ask ourselves: Is the human being naturally designed for solitude? Let us leave the answer for later.
The educational norm in the West that has given rise to the concept of gregarious behavior and the impulse of sociability (socializing or being social), out of necessity for the survival and conservation of the species, has been disciplinarily shaped – as we have already mentioned – since the Greeks, and the result of these 9 vectors, whatever their structural conformation and weighting in each individual, is physical, emotional, mental and spiritual dependence on a conglomerate that is not 100% identical.
By nature, the human being is a wanderer, that when he is able to walk at 10-24 months after his birth, his first impulses and needs are to move away. His condition of insecurity -and incapacity- during the first months of age, to be able to feed and survive on his own, obliges him to remain under the guardianship of his parents (the “parental home”). The natural protection of the parents towards their children, during the first months of the infant -and sometimes for several years-, transmits to him an awareness of what they can do and of what they are incapable of doing for their survival. Awareness that moves and persuades him to remain in the parental home. It will depend on the parents themselves and on his temperament and character, whether or not he will be able to get out of this dependence, which can condemn him to be a HOMO-SOCIABILIS by induction or convenience (influence-incitement-stimulus-persuasion). (Post THE WALK AND THE INSTINCT TO LEAVE THE PLACE OF ORIGIN).
Now, how does the WALK-RWD system participate in this process of dependence and liberation, which has been going on for at least 5,000 years? Apart from temperament and personality, which are not collective factors, but individual, there is an additional element which is the age of the walker; that is to say, the different stages of growth and development through which the human being goes throughout, and which fill him with experiences, contain determining information for making decisions regarding his state of belonging or not to a certain community, as well as his own feelings regarding seeking or needing solitude, or the group experience with his peers; this is related to a differentiated emotional vision in each person. Therefore, it is very different what young people feel and seek from adolescence and after crossing this stage of bewilderment and psychological fragility, so they are inclined to seek groups to protect themselves and have greater security within themselves. Nowadays, these groups in big cities are so frequent that they are even called urban tribes. That instinctive process of leaving the home of origin (place of origin), taking place at an age of 11-15 years of age, results in the individual strengthening his personality “Strengthen your personality and you will find the way; and when you find the way you will find your destiny” [DISCOVER AND TRAVEL YOUR OWN WAY, IT WILL LEAD YOU TO FIND YOUR DESTINATION]. (Post THE WALK AND THE INSTINCT TO LEAVE THE PLACE OF ORIGIN).
In the same way, the vision will be different for those over 30-40 years old versus those over 50 years old and older.
Before going any further, I would like to emphasize that we must draw a line of separation between what has happened in the Western and Eastern spheres, because they are different idiosyncrasies. In other words, although the treatment is similar, they have different forms of behavior and above all the effects lead us down different paths, although the practice has the same structure.
In this case that we have pointed out in the present Post, we will have to put into practice the WALK-RWD System in an integral and complete way; that is to say, the walking together with the realization of the 3 structured activities, because this will take us to be able to reach the “final cause” that every human being looks for: The WALK-RWD system is a recurrent practice, that must be repeated daily, combining the defined and wandering walking to counteract the actions of fleeing, escaping, etc., with the other 3 activities (reading, writing and drawing) that organize it -consciously and unconsciously- and prepare it to reach the fundamental objectives, which will counteract the 9 elements of dependence, namely: 1) Physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health, 2) Creativity and artistic creation, 3) Concentration, relaxation, meditation and contemplation, 4) Mind-body harmony, 5) Understanding and acceptance of oneself, 6) Perception and knowledge of reality. These 6 transcendental objectives are direct opponents to the 9 dependency inducers that we have been suffering from for an eternity, and each one resolves important parts of these 9 vectors, with the prerogative that these 6 are potentiated as they accumulate in a process of reciprocal cooperation, on calculable periods of time.
The proposal is somewhat complicated regarding the degree of effectiveness that can be effectively obtained with respect to the achievement of these 6 transcendent objectives; however, the WALK-RWD system does allow us to materialize them determinantly, little by little, since we have no doubt of its effectiveness through our own experience; walking and performing the other three structured activities (reading, writing and drawing) will allow us to immediately observe benefits in these 6 different aspirations, of which we can be direct witnesses.
Let’s start with this and work our way up. If for a single individual it is observed as climbing a mountain, if we were talking about half of humanity, it certainly becomes quite difficult; however, let us become aware of it by walking and practicing the system, being witnesses of its effectiveness.
In a specific way we can point out that walking accompanied with one or two people to chat or exchange experiences, talking and listening, can be substituted -to that type of interaction- with the 3 structured activities within the WALK-RWD System, of reading, writing and drawing, since as we have explained in previous Posts, this allows a dialogue with ourselves (Post DIALOGUE WITH OURSELVES AS WE READ AND WALK; DRAWING AND THRESHOLDING, TO KNOW OUR INNER SELF; DRAW, TO KNOW OURSELVES BETTER). It is very likely that interacting with other people allows us to find an adequate understanding and enjoy the company – achieving some entertainment and fun – however, there is also the risk of not finding a dialogue that flows in all directions, and only one person is the only one who leads the conversation, without allowing the rest of the companions to speak. It is difficult to find an affinity of topics, interests and experiences shared in the same way and with the same affinity. The latter makes us lose the incentive to undertake walks accompanied, or in other words, it is difficult to socialize when walking. It transforms us into individuals who are reticent and withdrawn to socializing while walking. We want to remain in solitude in this activity, but not in isolation, not in a closed isolation, only reserved to enjoy our walking alone.
Whether we are gregarious beings or not, we should be aware that all the efforts we put into walking are valuable if we manage to do it, socializing or not.
On the other hand, I would like to direct my arguments and enunciations on the sociability of the human being towards another task, which deals with the future walking of the human being, which is intimately related to the aspects of sociability that I have analyzed. To do this, we must remember, and become aware of the countless times we have been assaulted (aggressions, hostility) by pedestrians and passers-by when we walk along the streets of cities, especially large cities. And in this last part of the post we will have to point out some aspects that we must take into account in order to define a better PARADIGM that will allow us an adequate model to be able to walk in the near future, without this great variety in the type of aggressions.
In this line there are many thinkers who agree that the human being is aggressive by nature, among them we highlight Hobbes, who like Machiavelli, considered that he was evil in essence, therefore he recommended that the State should issue the necessary laws to combat and control that aggressive impulse that germinates and emanates from the natural selfishness that nests in all human beings.
In the process that we will carry out to arrive in the future to define the new Paradigm of walking, we will point out the different and innumerable aggressive manifestations in all the environments and fundamentally when the human being moves walking in the cities, since this aggressive selfishness stands out when it is carried out in the great metropolis.
These aggressive manifestations have different levels of importance, that is to say, they can be slight as the outburst, the tantrum, the irritation; an intermediate level as the rage, the exasperation, the desperation; and a higher level as the anger, the wrath, the fury or the violence itself; that many of these states could be considered synonymous, nevertheless, all of them enclose a different degree of hostility and that is visualized when we are walking in the great agglomerations.
We know that they manifest themselves in human beings in their different activities, but there are also these degrees while walking next to other people. I must point out that the greater the number of people who are walking, the problem of aggression can be potentiated and exacerbated, so that these levels occur especially in large metropolises and in places of high concentration of people.
The recipe is to walk trying to avoid these levels of aggression. But how to achieve this?
I believe that part of what we have raised throughout the last 3 Posts that are structured to get to define the new paradigm of walking (Post THE 9TH GENERATION OF MODERN AGE CREATIVITY AND WALKING. PART I; THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM AND THE INTERDISCIPLINARY FLOW OF IDEAS. PART II; WALKING: A NECESSARY DISCIPLINARY HYBRIDIZATION. PART III ), is focused to begin to organize a design where walking can be achieved without aggressions: The conjunction of diverse disciplines on these aggressive manifestations of the human being could indicate us the path of non-aggression, fundamentally psychology, sociology, anthropology, biology, of child development, and some others that will be incorporated to these unpostponable goals, but all of them should be focused on human behavior, while walking in crowded places.
These aggressive manifestations are carried out in a conscious but also unconscious way, and both forms can lead to truly violent situations. Just as we have described the categories of aggression, of which there are many, so too these aggressions occur in different forms, which we could categorize (classify them, order them, by importance) in hundreds: clearly and perfectly differentiable and hierarchical. Later we will deal with that determination; for now, it is enough to say that we will have to know their origins and causes; that we will have to put a remedy to all of them; that the aggression (conscious or unconscious) from one person to another, implies that the second one can also respond with violence towards this first subject generator of the original offense, taking retaliation, or else, deriving it towards other people who have contact or relationship while walking at that moment.
The next actions to be taken -within the specialized hybridization of the disciplines mentioned- will be the definition of civic rules and the unrestricted compliance of a civic culture that includes the basic principles for the new pedestrian of the future. In such a way that in the future, no one will walk in public places, displaying that human selfishness by assaulting other people while walking. We can also underline the efforts we will have to make to strengthen the bonds of unity, solidarity, tolerance, equality, fraternity, brotherhood and cooperation.
Let’s start walking while respecting the pedestrians next to us.
KIND INVITATION: The book “WALK-RWD SYSTEM” will be published shortly, as the first volume, which will include the first 124 posts of this Blog WALKREADANDWRITE.COM, which can be purchased on Amazon. It has the fundamental purpose of providing people interested in this natural activity of the human being, immediate access to these posts, in a single compiled document.
All posts that have been published up to the current date will be included. Each transcribed post has its sequential number, the textual content, the date it was published and its title.
The book will include three indexes: the GENERAL CONTENT, where the posts published during the first 4 years, from July 2018 to June 2022¸ are listed in chronological order noting their sequential number and their title; a THEMATIC INDEX where the most outstanding topics of the Blog are pointed out, and an ANALYTICAL INDEX OF CONCEPTUALIZATION (CONCEPT), where the subtopics and additional relevant aspects that are explained in the different posts that have a close relationship with the Human Being’s Walk are highlighted. This index facilitates its location and accessibility to any of those subtopics and conceptualizations that enrich the compilation, giving it greater dynamism and underlining the capital importance of this essential activity of the human being.
Loya Lopategui, Carlos, WALK-RWD SYSTEM, Westerville, Ohio, USA. Sommer 2022. Distributed by Amazon, available in Kindle Edition: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B4B9TP26.
(*) Edel C. Piñera y Loya Lopategui, Carlos, Pueblos sin Instinto, EMULISA, México, 2021.
