Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/07/11/the-treadmill-was-invented-to.html
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I’m sure that there are absolutely no uncomfortable implications concerning what ‘society’ entails to be found in the notion that those suitably broken by extended exposure to powerless ennui are deemed most promising for reintegration with it.
Let’s all go with the version where society is just ducky and Mr. Cubitt was sorely misguided. That sounds mentally hygienic to me.
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I see people everyday doing the treadmill at the gym, willingly. Weird, I know…
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Returning soon to the West in one form or another, along with debtors’ prisons and workhouses.
And then there’s the Black Mirror episode “15 Million Merits”, in which the punishment is re-cast as a virtue (which, I suppose, it always has as a result of the Protestant Work Ethic).
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Reminds me of a quote from The Drew Carey Show,
“My husband invented the cubicle. He originally wanted to put the workers in cages but then he discovered he only needed 3 walls for them to feel trapped and hopeless.”
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Thank goodness you didn’t dig up a photo of George Carlin as Spiderman (dressed as such in an old Tonight Show skit). It was a live show and – apparently – a last second thing: Let’s just say that ‘junk’ was on display; they really should have had him in a dance belt. Brrrrrrrrrr!!
PS: I also recall that Carlin – given his predicament – was a real trooper in that skit.
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“And the Union workhouses?” demanded Scrooge. “Are they still in operation?”
“They are. Still,” returned the gentleman, “I wish I could say they were not.”
“The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?” said Scrooge.
“Both very busy, sir.”
“Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course,” said Scrooge. “I’m very glad to hear it.”
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We are the assholes for falling for this shit over and over. (not me personally, though. never would, could. not me, no way. waste of money. prefer the comic book. just for kids.)
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Uh. Treadmills go back much further:
https://www.attendly.com/the-ancient-and-surprising-history-of-the-treadmill/
And let’s not forget 16th century dog-powered treadmills.
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Yes, they were also used in Japan to move water from at least the 17th century.
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Thanks! I corrected the headline.
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And Australia. Go figure.
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Do we consider it progress that now we torture ourselves instead of (wait, dammit…) in addition to torturing others?
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Outsourcing torture to the individual is probably an efficiency gain, if nothing else.
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Torturers prefer the term “co-production”.
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You can have a go on an old one at the Inveraray Jail, now a museum, in Scotland. They have a whole bunch of other old hard labour torture devices you can try out, too - all of them pointless and all of them pretty nasty.
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Like “The Crank”
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