The purpose of your immune system is to fight. Fight pathogens, poisons, and things that you don’t want in your body.
To do this it must differentiate between self and non-self. The self is safe, the non-self, the other, is a potential threat. It’s a complex system to say the least. The extended immune function even includes the emotion of disgust.
Expressing disgust is actually an unconscious physiological response. It creates nausea, sometimes vomiting, whilst also increasing disease fighting secretions in your mouth and upper respiratory tract. Your disgust sensitivity will even be heightened during immuno-compromised circumstances. Helpful during times of disease.
Disgust is linked with many irrational phobias, even OCD. Unfortunately the disgust response also includes a very powerful psychological mechanism that increases our tendency to polarise between ‘us and them’, the ingroup and the outgroup. Feelings of disgust lead to our strongest tendencies towards dehumanising arbitrary 'outgroups' of people.
At extremes our disgust response has been hijacked to usher in cruel totalitarian regimes. Get the population sufficiently disgusted and their unconscious ‘self versus non-self’ extended immune function will do the dirty work. The toilet paper wars, though mild by comparison, suddenly begin to make unnerving sense.
How do we override an unconscious physiological survival mechanism that plays on our worst inclinations? Think back to those countless acts of nobility observed only two months ago, during the recent bushfires. We were going out of our way to help the vulnerable and those in need. By behaving in a prudent and kind manner, we met with the best of ourselves.
Be like that… prudent, kind, and may no one ever become untouchable.
...Oh, and Happy 55th to Lovely Lyndall.
With love,
Andrew Maher.
Foundation, Neuro-Structural Optimisation. Collaroy (mention you swim with B&B)
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