What Does it Mean to be Fit?

For years I’ve been uncomfortable associating the human body with fitness. Maybe because the marketed image of what a fit person is supposed to look like has little to do with Charles Darwin’s original conception of the word. Maybe because like other marketed images, the ones propagated by the fitness industry so rarely materialize in real life. Maybe because nature kills off those who are “weak” and “unfit” and in doing so, separates the chaff from the wheat, so to speak. Meanwhile, the strong and fit prosper just like on those wildlife shows where indomitable predator devours old, sick, or newborn prey. At least that’s how the popularized version of Darwin’s theory of evolution goes.

A famous failed Austrian artist took the popular idea and ran with it. He almost made it to Stalingrad. He killed some people along the way.