This is a response by Christopher McDougall to a New York Time article titled, “Is Running Barefoot Better For You?” from 2009. It was so well stated that I felt it deserved a blog post of its own. Here it is:

Wait — why isn’t the question “Is Running in Shoes Better for You?”? Since when did motion-controlling shoes become the default position for the human foot? It’s bizarre, and I guess admirable in a perverse, market-manipulating, sucker-born-every-minute way, that motion-controlling shoes are considered natural and bare feet are seen as some kind of thrill-seeking experiment. Since when did an artificial contrivance with absolutely zero scientific evidence to recommend them become the default position? The burden of proof isn’t on the human foot — which had been doing fantastically well on its own for 2 million years, thank you very much. It’s on these overpriced, overengineered novelty items which have done nothing to decrease the injury rate in 40 years.

— christopher mcdougall

I think this speaks brilliantly to just how easily our culture is manipulated by corporations.