Healthy, Wealthy, & Wise

Healthy, Wealthy, & Wise

On Defying Nature

What Bodybuilding Reveals About Civilization, Discipline, and the Human Desire to Become More Than We Are

Richard L. Johnson's avatar
Richard L. Johnson
Jun 20, 2026
∙ Paid
16 Greatest Physiques of All Time - Muscle & Fitness

“Modern bodybuilding is ritual, religion, sport, art, and science, awash in Western chemistry and mathematics. Defying nature, it surpasses it.” - Camille Paglia

Have you ever taken a dumbbell to the face and survived to tell the tale? My wife has.

Not many people know this about me, but I was a teenage bodybuilder. Long before mortgages, executive meeti…

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