Retrospective: Agonizing Ecosophy and Ascetology

As already argued in Chapter 2, Sigmund Loland in his casuistry often refers to sports that thrive on a variety of talents, such as stamina, perseverance, agility, explosiveness, motor ability, and tactical insight. He does so for good reasons, since putting a wide range of talents to the test in alpine skiing, ball sports and the ecosophically reformed sprint-running scheme Loland suggests, have a good chance of realizing the ‘extended, ecological Self’.

There are more manifestations of sport under the sun, however, I argued. Consider endurance sports, such as long distance running, road cycling, open water swimming and, the classic Ironman- distance triathlon. A common denominator is their monomaniac character: repeating the very same movement over and over again, at a glance without the faintest notion of playfulness. The apparently ‘boring’ nature of these sports of long breath does not have to exclude ecosophical joy, however. Even more, once swimming, running, and cycling are automated—when they are, so to say “running over our spine” (Van den Berg 1973, preliminary note, my translation)—they can provide unique opportunities to experience the sensation of a holistic unification with nature.

Endurance sports even may lead to a Spinozistic unio mystica that precisely overcomes the automated nature of the horizontal daily drag. Training sessions, especially the lonely ones, obviously are more prone to this overwhelming feeling of joy and unification with nature, since they provide more room for mental ecosophical roaming. However, also contests on a razor’s edge must not be excluded from potential ecosophical enlightenment. Loland acknowledges the benefits of strenuous training and hard work.

Indeed, training can be part of the ecosophical approach to sport even if it is considered an instrumental activity. For example, the aim can be to reach skill levels that offer a deeper understanding of the possibilities that offer a deeper understanding of the relational body. Work is acceptable as a means to increased joy and perfection. Here, sport is similar to most other human practices, such as the practice of doing eco-philosophy: periods of monotonous, hard work are sometimes necessary to reach deeper insight and values (1996, p. 80).

In endurance sport, however, training hard is not only an acceptable but a necessary condition for ecosophical optimization. Loland refers to Naess’s norm that “[s]kill development is an optimal balance between width and depth!”, between “specialization” and “all-around skill development” (p. 80). I contend that in endurance sport width simply equals depth. Racing is enhanced training. Acquired skills certainly need maintenance, but the quintessence of long distance is zealous perseverance. Since they are performed over a variety of distances an surfaces and in the case of triathlon also different skills, endurance sports meet several criteria Loland suggests for reforming record sports. They, however, still stick to the loathed record paradigm of ever going faster, higher and stronger at maybe at quite some costs. I have argued that this does not have to be ecosophically problematic per se, however.

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Endurance athletes distinguish between ‘fast’191 _{and ‘heavy’ and therefore relatively ‘slow’ races.}192 _This

diversification to some extent already dilutes Loland’s (quasi-) record setting paradox in favour of a perspective that lets more flowers bloom, and thus opens up for a wide variety of record-setting. What makes endurance sports even more ecosophical is the fact that trying to win a race is not relevant for the majority of serious endurance athletes.193 _{Ending as high as possible in your age-group, improving your}

personal best, finishing a race tout court, overcoming personal agony rather than agonizing opponents and finding your own pace seem to be more important. It is the heroic self-oriented agonistic effort that counts, not just the petty spectacle of scoring goals or breaking records.

To provide some counterbalance to Loland’s emphasis on elite sport and record setting, I referred to Peter Sloterdijk’s plea for a renewed systematic asceticism, or ‘ascetology’. I argued that such an all-embracing but at the same time mono-maniac upward-oriented training theory is laudable from a societal point of view. While ‘traditional’ sport philosophy is usually still preoccupied with elite sport, ‘sport’ (or perhaps ‘physical exercise’) also has become an almost mandatory health enhancing technique for the crowd. In the Netherlands, for instance, the government advises people to exercise at least 150 minutes a week, preferrably spread out over several days.

Sloterdijk argues that we should learn to revalue training as such,not just as a means towards ends: fitness, health, appearance, looks, prestige, let alone to satisfy modern buzz words like ‘interaction’ and ‘communication’(p. 4). Extrapolating the summons from the statue towards an endurance sport perspective, I argued that in order to learn to (re-)value the Sisyphean nature of the human condition, we have to be patient, attentive, persistent, and endorse what William James has coined ‘the strenuous mood’.

To achieve this sense of fulfilment it takes a lot of ‘askesis’, as mentioned the ancient Greek word for ‘training’ or ‘practice’, a meaning which still resonates in our common use of the term ascetic: the simple and secluded monastic life solely dedicated to scripture. For Sloterdijk asceticism represents a wider range of historical manifestations of striving for excellence trough dedicated training practices. Our ascetic planet is inhabited by individuals who are constantly and relentlessly training themselves: from monks and Stoics to Kafka’s hunger artist, armless violin players, professional cyclists and weekend warriors.

This may seem self-focused, but it may also have a broader scope: we train ourselves to become better citizens, contributing to a just and sustainable society. We must change our lives and strive for a new horizon of universal co-operative training practices, in short: a ‘general ascetology’. Since Pierre de Coubertin’s introduction of the modern Olympics in 1896, the athletic ideal, which was so predominant in the agonistic Greek culture, has taken the lead again: “a transformation best described as a re-somatisation or a de-spiritualization of asceticisms”(p. 27). This renaissance of exuberant physicality also gives room to enact our ‘Vertikalspannung’, our vertical tension, our inescapable tendency to always try to run faster, jump higher, and become stronger: citius, altius, fortius!

191 E.g. the Berlin marathon with its wide lanes, lack of sharp turns and its flat course, especially designed for record-breaking 192 E.g. the mentioned Norseman triathlon, which ends with an extremely heavy mountain ‘run’.

This empathic revaluation of the body doesn’t have to mean, however, that the rational soul is simply replaced by a life which simply relies on reflexes, as I have argued in the metabletic or historical phenomenological Chapter 4, in which I argued that physis and psyche are two sides of a coin in the modern athlete. Of course it is rather obvious to associate a strong athletic body with a strong will, but, on the other hand, a strong will to work up oneself also allows for the asthenic and the disabled to upgrade their abilities, if only they are willing to put in substantial effort.

To reach the full potential of the transformative power for the better of humans, the Sysiphean dimension of the human condition has to be revalued a such, Sloterdijk argues. “What has constantly been arising since the renaissance is a multi-disciplinary and multi-virtuosic world with expanding limits of ability”(p. 155). The quintessential point of this almost inexhaustible human potential for pushing back frontiers is that we first of all have to become fully aware of our ascetic disposition. Once internalised, asceticism implies freedom and thus a full potential for change. “This supposed end in itself is, in truth, the medium in which the conversion of possessed rule-applications to free exercises take place” (p. 145).

In sum, for Sloterdijk ascetic practices are, though mediated, not just means to ends, such as prestige, health or even social interaction or communication. Well-performed and well-understood practices also must touch upon something essential that we have lost on our way towards technotopia: humble perseverance. We have to reconsider that life is a highly repetitive effort to grasp unconcealed being as such, rather than a one-dimensional, tailor-made training programme for uncompromising record-setting or linear personal growth. The common denominator of the agonistic games so many people play is that they, in the end, hint towards the personalized heights of humanity. Once we have sufficiently invested in automated repetition, we can climb any mountain at our own pace. If performed in the true ascetic mood, agon has infinite ecosophical potency. I now will switch to a more in-depth analysis of the ‘self-agonizing’ nature of specific endurance sport practices and their deeper meaning. Simple means, such as bicycles, may lead to rich ends such as self-acceptance and ecosophical self- actualization.

Now for some imaginative high-ascetic casuistry.