And there’s a reason for that.
Disgust short circuits compassion. Turns it right off like a light switch. And that seems so horribly cruel and callous.
I mean, being gross has nothing to do with whether you deserve compassion, right? Only whether you will get it.
But as much as it pains me to admit it, it kind of has to be that way.
Because the whole point of us having a sense of disgust in the first place is to make us stay away from things that will make us sick.
And some of those things are people.
Evolution has to thread a very tricky needle when it comes to our reaction to sick people. On the one hand, the tribe that cares for the sick continues to benefit from the labour the sick person will contribute once they are well, and thus prospers.
But getting close enough to a very gross person might well lead to whatever disease they have spreading to the rest of the tribe, and thus disgust tells us to stay away from that person in case they are contagious the same way it keeps us away from food that’s gone bad, dirty water, and the dead.
Luckily for us modern homo sapiens, we get the benefit of one of the most important unsung heroes without which modern life would be impossible : antisepsis.
Without our knowledge of germs and how to kill them, the world would still be ravaged by horrible plagues all the time. We would lose millions of babies to crib death and a;; the rest every year, and it would be once more rare for a kid to make it to their second birthday, let alone adulthood.
Both of my grandparents were products of large French Catholic families, and they both had a lot of brothers, sisters, and cousins that did not make it.
And that was just two generations ago. Think about it.
Anyhow, because we know how to kill germs, we don’t need to be conflicted in how we feel about the sick. Sick people go to the doctor or the hospital, where there are plenty of people who are extremely good at preventing contagion, and those people can therefore safely make you well.
At least in theory.
Don’t get me started.
Nevertheless, the ability of disgust to suppress compassion remains. That is why war propaganda always refers to the enemy as “dirty”, or the equivalent. even when the enemy is the Japanese, who are some of the cleanest people on Earth.
And it’s why when we think someone is morally deplorable, we say they are a “dirty, rotten, stinking (epithet)”. Our morality and our disgust dovetail that well.
Which brings us to disgust’s moral equivalent, contempt. To have contempt for someone is to see them as having very low value as a human being.
It crosses the Venn diagram with both disgust and our sense of moral value that tells us which of our fellow community members are good for the community and should be valued, esteemed, and encouraged, and which should be considered liabilities, looked down upon, and punished for their transgressions.
That’s what backs our drive for conformity, including the unofficial enforcement mechanism of conformity, bullying.
Bullies who pick on the weird kids are unknowingly policing conformity. On a deep and distant level, they are trying to get the weird kids to stop interfering with the warm blanket of conformity and its ability to make you forget that you are surrounded by all sides by potentially hostile strangers who could be after your stuff and/or mate.
Living as close to each other as we urban humans do is extremely abnormal in the animal kingdom. One might even call it unnatural.
Civilization, therefore, can be seen as a set of behaviours and attitudes that allow this bizarre commingling to not just happen but to lead to our prosper as a species.
More after the break.
My skin is sick
Because I can’t shower. Here’s why :
For one thing, the nurses at Wound Care stopped saying I could shower if I had the clear plastic film over the bandages on my feet.
They still put that stuff over the bandages, mind you. But they have clearly forgotten why, and just do it because it’s what the previous nurse did.
But they stopped letting me shower and I am not going to go against their wishes.
Not that it matters, because I can’t stand for long enough to take a shower any more anyway. The moment I am on my feet, I am in pain, and if I am standing without leaning on anything, unsupported, that pain gets worse REALLY fast.
When I was about to leave the hospital last August, a very nice lady talked to me about all these modifications to my bathroom that the government was going to pay for so that I would be able to get in and out of the bathtub and on and off the toilet safely.
But then I left my hospital room for a few minutes and when I came back, the big long form she had left with me was gone and with it, her contact info.
So I got nuthin’.Typical, really.
That’s just how my life works. Mysterious forces manifesting out of nowhere specifically to fuck me over then vanishing into the night.
Anyhow, point is, I can’t shower and sponge baths are a joke. They don’t do a thing to clean the gunk out of my pores and it’s clogged pores that are making me sick.
What I need is hot water to open up my pores and flush them out so my poor skin can finally breathe and perform its role in homeostasis properly.
Until I figure out a way to get that which doesn’t involve taking a shower OR a bath (can’t get out of the tub with weak legs), I am going to continue to suffer and feel like used shit all summer long.
Anyone know where I can find a good sauna?
I will talk to you nice people again tomorrow.