The Coffee Must Flow
Do you ever wonder how the small but pervasive details we take for granted, such as foods, subtly shape our lives and our world? I've been thinking about coffee lately. How much is it responsible for the modern world? How much of the modern world is it responsible for?
This page claims that it was discovered in Ethiopia in the 11th century. Wikipedia puts that discovery before the 15th century, and says it was introduced to Europe in the 16th century. Of course that time frame is the rise of the so-called Enlightenment.1
Caffeine is known to boost cognitive function and alertness. So people before the advent of coffee were less alert and functioned on a lower cognitive level. My question is: to what extent is that "lower" level of performance more essential to what it means to be human? To what extent does we humans being little lost dummies put us more in touch with the reality of our status as interdependent social beings, creatures dependent on God? To what extent does the improvement of focus that caffeine enables foster the illusion that we are autonomous masters of our own destiny?
For that matter, which cognitive faculties does caffeine promote? And which, by comparison, does it weaken? And how do these faculties compare with the list of human characteristics that have taken command since the Enlightenment?
Notes
1. Cf. Peter Ramus (1515-1572), Francis Bacon (1561-1626), Rene Descartes (1596-1650).
1 comment:
Caffeine has been a boon for civilization, Michael Pollan says. But it has come at a cost.
Tim Carman, The Washington Post Published 9:43 am EST, Wednesday, February 5, 2020
(selections)
((Pollan's fall from the wagon is more testimony to the addictive nature of caffeine, a drug that the author argues helped advance civilization while, simultaneously, disrupting our sleep. The introduction of coffee and tea to Europe in the mid-17th century - at the time, alcohol was the drink that fueled and befogged workers - freed "people from the natural rhythms of the body and the sun, thus making possible whole new kinds of work and, arguably, new kinds of thought, too," Pollan writes.
Caffeine would transform the world around us in ways large and small, magnificent and horrific. It would stimulate and focus the mind in a way that would influence the workplace, politics, social relations and "arguably even the rhythms of English prose," Pollan writes. But the cultivation of, and trade in, coffee and tea plants (and the sugar used in both) would also enslave countless people and lead to the East India Company opening an opium trade with China. The drug trade was good for British coffers, but it crippled a great empire.
Once business executives discovered caffeine could improve worker production, coffee became capitalism's silent co-conspirator. Pollan delves into a Fair Labor Standards Act case from the 1950s in which a company, Los Wigman Weavers, made 15-minute coffee breaks mandatory, but refused to pay workers for the breaks. The courts ruled against Wigman, ushering in a law that requires employers to pay workers for short breaks.
Historically, Pollan says, drugs that favor business have fared better under U.S. law than those that don't, though the increasing legalization of marijuana counters that trend.
"I think there is a kind of a bias against drugs that interfere with the smooth working of the economic machine," the author says. "As soon as you get into jobs that involve machines or numbers, alcohol is a challenge. And we did try to ban alcohol, without success. I just think it's too deeply rooted in everyday life to take it on. But in general, you find that the drugs that increase productivity are the ones that are most supported in our society."
With "Caffeine," though, Pollan wanted to separate what's good for civilization (and business) from what's good for humans as a species. He spent considerable time with sleep researchers, most of whom don't touch caffeine because of what it does to the body and the quality of one's shut-eye. Coffee, in particular, has become the solution to the problem that coffee has created, Pollan notes in the book.
"There is no free lunch," Pollan says, laughing at the memory of his struggle without caffeine. "You know, these drugs give us something, and they take something, too. I think, on balance, the advantages exceed the disadvantages. I'm drinking coffee, and it's not just because I'm enslaved to it. I get a lot from it. I get a lot of pleasure, and I'm convinced it helps me with my writing. Getting off it certainly hurt my writing."
...
Although he prefers the caffeinated life, Pollan is not sure where he stands on whether coffee and tea have been good for humans in general. And even if he were clear, he probably wouldn't tell us, he says.
"Caffeine makes us work harder. Is that good for us or not? What is good for a species?" Pollan says. "The kind of person caffeine made us, someone more likely to be striving and ambitious and highly productive, does that necessarily make us happier?"
"The benefits are clear on the civilization ledger," he adds. "On the species ledger, it really depends if you see civilization as a plus or minus for the species. It does a lot for us, but it also has an enormous cost."
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https://www.greenwichtime.com/news/article/Caffeine-has-been-a-boon-for-civilization-15031811.php
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