Fitter, healthier and more productive
A pig in a cage
On antibiotics
- Fitter Happier, Radiohead - OK Computer, 1997

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Radiohead’s “Fitter Happier” feels eerily prophetic in an age where productivity is the new religion. We have reached a point where we are constantly surrounded by pressure to be productive. Social media reinforces this by rewarding those who appear disciplined, efficient, and successful. Even if they spend more time on actually tracking and endlessly optimising, rather than doing what they are supposed to do. Unless we perfect our lives, we are perceived as falling back or unmotivated. We track our calories, steps, time asleep, how much we drink, etc.

That’s exactly what “Fitter Happier” criticises. The robotic voice listing “better driver, safer car, no longer afraid of the dark” sounds like someone who has optimised everything except their humanity. It shows how we can become trapped in an optimising hell where we forget to actually enjoy our lives. Routines lead to burnout. Without spontaneity, you lose humanity and individuality.

“A pig in a cage on antibiotics”

It’s a haunting comparison between an “optimised” human and a factory-farmed animal. Trapped, controlled, and chemically sustained to perform. Pig symbolises the lost dignity, and the cage symbolises the trap that social systems are. Antibiotics stand for something artificial. Something to keep us alive and productive even when we are unwell - medications, distractions, drugs.

What seemed like progress turns out to be a form of captivity, and what sounded like health is actually sickness disguised as wellness.

Be less productive today. Rebel a little and lay back and enjoy the Sunday.

Full “song”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4SzvsMFaek

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