{"id":64303,"date":"2017-06-05T09:20:18","date_gmt":"2017-06-05T14:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=64303"},"modified":"2025-12-22T05:43:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T11:43:13","slug":"gattaca-swim-back-last-scene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/featured\/gattaca-swim-back-last-scene\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Save Anything for the Swim Back"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Gattaca<\/a><\/p>\n

The hallowing of Pain
\nLike hallowing of Heaven
\nObtains at corporeal cost —
\nAll — is the Price of All —<\/p>\n

–Emily Dickinson<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the excellent and under-appreciated film Gattaca<\/em><\/a>, biotechnology and advanced eugenics have divided the \u201cnot-so-distant\u201d future into two groups: the \u201cvalid\u201d and the \u201cin-valid.\u201d<\/p>\n

The valids are those whose embryonic genes were pruned and manipulated to allow for their birth as genetically superior children, destined to bring to fruition their parents\u2019 best hereditary traits.<\/p>\n

The in-valids are those who were conceived naturally, by parents who played a game of genetic roulette. More likely to carry \u201cflawed\u201d DNA and more susceptible to genetic disorders and weaknesses, in-valids are barred from society\u2019s important professions and consigned to menial work.<\/p>\n

Vincent Freeman is an in-valid. With genes that indicate a high probability of several disorders and an estimated life span of 30.2 years, he works as a janitor while secretly dreaming of becoming an astronaut, a vocation from which he is disqualified.<\/p>\n

Vincent\u2019s brother, Anton, is a valid, and their sibling rivalry is heightened by their genetic divide.<\/p>\n

Growing up, Vincent and Anton challenge each other to games of \u201cchicken,\u201d in which they both swim out into the ocean as far as they dare; the first one to turn back is the loser.<\/p>\n

Vincent always loses, until one day he shocks Anton by outdistancing him. Anton, who cannot keep up, almost drowns, and has to be saved by his genetically inferior brother.<\/p>\n

Years later, after an insatiably ambitious Vincent uses subterfuge to join the space program and earn a place, through merit, on a mission to Saturn, the brothers have a rematch. Once more the underdog bests his fraternal rival, who again must be rescued from drowning.<\/p>\n

Astonished at this turning of the tables, Anton asks, \u201cHow are you doing this Vincent? How have you done any of this?\u201d<\/p>\n

To which his brother replies:<\/p>\n

\u201cYou wanna know how I did it? This is how I did it Anton.<\/p>\n

I never saved anything for the swim back<\/em>.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Edge Wrought From Desperation<\/h3>\n

\u201cOne salvation alone remains to the defeated: to hope for none.\u201d –Virgil<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After thoroughly routing the Roman army at the Battle of Cannae, the victorious Carthaginian general Hannibal offered to ransom back the thousands of legionaries who had been taken prisoner. The Romans refused, though their devastating losses had left them acutely, desperately in need of men. They knew that should they accept Hannibal\u2019s offer, their remaining soldiers might see a chance for survival in surrendering and would thus lose their ferocity in the fight. The Romans, Carlin Barton writes in Roman Honor<\/em><\/a>, further \u201cordained by law that soldiers must either vanquish or die, so that . . . there might be no hope of survival in case of defeat.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Barton observes, this approach to maximizing motivation by purposefully putting one\u2019s back to the wall and setting up a situation of \u201cdo or die\u201d was typical of this ancient people, who \u201cromanticized the challenge of desperation\u201d for \u201cthe edge [it] gave to valor.\u201d As the Greek historian Polybius recorded, \u201cThe Romans, both singly and as a group, are most to be feared when they stand in real danger.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBurning their boats\u201d<\/a> was just one way the Romans sought to achieve the state of being they deemed necessary to the salvation of both individual and civic life: that of holding nothing in reserve. As Barton explains, \u201cThe willingness to expend everything — up to and including the state — was, paradoxically, the final insurance of the continued existence of both the state and the spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n

They believed, as the Roman general Sulla put it, \u201cYou will be safer the less you spare yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

The spirit of the man who was willing to give everything could not ultimately be defeated.<\/p>\n

Moderation in All Things, Including Moderation<\/h3>\n

\u201cHe who scorns his own life is lord of yours.\u201d –Seneca<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Saving nothing for the way back, consuming yourself in a cause — choosing to be, as Jack London put it, ashes rather than dust — is of course not a sound policy in all things. In most things, really.<\/p>\n

Success in modern life most often hinges on moderation, on budgeting one\u2019s resources, carefully pacing the distance. Being sensible. Prudent.<\/p>\n

And yet there are times when victory can only be achieved by he who goes all in, who spurns an exit plan, who has no option B, who leaves it all on the floor.<\/p>\n

This strategy accomplishes two things:<\/p>\n

First, as the Romans observed, it forces you to find a fifth gear, to summon resources of will inaccessible outside a situation of \u201cdo or die.\u201d Not saving anything for the way back is then a kind of act of faith — a belief that if you dig deep enough, you\u2019ll find a layer of black gold heretofore untapped<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Second, it intimidates one\u2019s enemies, who are terrified by the uncertainty of just how far you\u2019ll go — just how much you\u2019re willing to risk, to do without. \u201cHannibal\u2019s will was broken,\u201d Barton notes, \u201cwhen he received news that the Romans were \u2018discarding\u2019 their soldiers at the moment they were most in need of them.\u201d Take a game of chicken far enough, and a competitor will often give up and turn back.<\/p>\n

In some things in life, there are simply no guarantees. You have to push forward with all you have and make the most of the moment. You have to trust that even if you burn up so much fuel on the way out that you don\u2019t have sufficient energy for the way back, you\u2019ll have yet traveled far enough to have reached another shore. You won\u2019t have to return to where you started. You\u2019ll have opened a new possibility for your life.<\/p>\n

As Anton and Vincent swim through the ocean towards the horizon, the former, frightened by fatigue and how far out they\u2019ve gotten, beseeches his brother: \u201cWe have to go back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s too late,\u201d Vincent answers. \u201cWe\u2019re closer to the other side.\u201d<\/p>\n

All is the price of all<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The hallowing of Pain Like hallowing of Heaven Obtains at corporeal cost — All — is the Price of All — –Emily Dickinson In the excellent and under-appreciated film Gattaca, biotechnology and advanced eugenics have divided the \u201cnot-so-distant\u201d future into two groups: the \u201cvalid\u201d and the \u201cin-valid.\u201d The valids are those whose embryonic genes were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64368,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[502,6,42269],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-64303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-character","category-featured","category-self-improvement"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Swim-Header-538x280.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Swim-Header-320x183.png","reactor-640":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Swim-Header-640x366.png","aesop-tiny-cover":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Swim-Header-400x229.png","aesop-character":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Swim-Header-200x200.png","aesop-collection":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Swim-Header-300x300.png","aesop-grid-image":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Swim-Header-400x229.png"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64303"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129766,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64303\/revisions\/129766"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64303"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=64303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}