RE: [pf] How can we bring America's conformity epidemic to a screeching

>[Diane: ]
>>Why do you think we try for spotlessness?  Where do we pick up this 
>message?
>>>From the impossible-to-duplicate world of movies and TV?
>
At 10:33 17/02/00 -0800, Dena wrote:
>I lived in Africa for two years where most people washed their 
>clothes by hand and no one would even consider throwing clothes 
>in the wash without a pretty good reason.
>
>>And what would we do to change this?
>
>Great question.  I'm not sure.  I think it would take time.
> ... changing minds on that scale ...

At 10:58 17/02/00 -0800, Betsy wrote:
>... we all learn as children that getting dirty is "bad" ... when microbes 
>were discovered, and they were known (or thought) to reside in dirt, there 
>was another reason to fear dirt and strive for spotlessness.
>
>I have a friend in Australia who [says it's partly] a classist mentality, 
>in which the poor are "dirty" and having clean fingernails is a sign that 
>you don't have to work hard with your hands for a living.
>
**  I'm sure it's training, the "Pavlov's dogs" thing.

**  Our parents, brought up to highly value "getting on in the world" and
aspiring to the higher levels of society (in my case, they thought the
epitome of civilization was Victorian England), created an environment for
us (with exasperated noises as well as words) where we eventually accepted
that clean was desirable. That sort of brainwashing takes many years of
one's own effort to undo.

**  Fortunately my own mother was a thinker, and could explain to me about
microbes, how the vast _vast_ majority of them have no effect on humans;
they're useful in some cases, as in compost heaps and other rotting
processes, the soil, and the gut of all animals including us.
(Topologically almost all animals are like earthworms, a hollow tube with
the outside world making a way right through our inside.) This point about
our gut I learned for myself.

**  In turn, I've brought up our kids to have a healthy attitude to dirt
and "germs", knowing that it does one's immune system good to be challenged
on a fairly regular basis, e.g. being inoculated by the cat pushing the
local microbes through our skin (first line-of-defense) when it sticks its
claws in. It's similarly beneficial to have your hands dirty while
gardening, especially when you get the occasional cut. There's one
exception only: you should keep your anti-tetanus inoculation up-to-date
(every 10-to-15 years), mainly for penetrating-wounds.

**  A few weeks ago, one of my children again asked about flies, i.e. how
much should we be concerned about them being in our house (as they are in
the spring and summer here). I gave my usual non-black-and-white answer,
that it depended on the probabilities and risks of the fly carrying a human
pathogen - a negligible risk here in New Zealand, but a major risk in the
parts of the 3rd world where human excreta is left lying around or is in
the not-completely-closed tank under a public toilet. Here in our house, I
routinely pick up spilled food off the floor and eat it, (others in out
household don't), since (i) I value the food so much, and (ii) the
tracked-in dirt from the roads around here is not especially infectious -
I've proved it over the last 7 years. Note that we almost never clean our
floors: I sweep the dirtier parts of our (linoleum-)tiled floors maybe a
dozen times a year, but they're washed only about once every 3 to 6 years.

**  As far as I'm concerned, I've proved that "spotlessness" is
unnecessary, at least in NZ and probably in most parts of Canada, Australia
and the USA. The current US fetish for it, including avoiding being
out-doors (cars parked inside a building), is too similar IMO to those poor
kids with no imune system, "enclosed in a bubble". tully's tipi would be
far more healthy. Even West Africa, with a not-too-dense population ('79
and earlier) wasn't particularly worrying from an infection point of view,
at least away from the centre of the towns and cities.

**  IMO keeping your immune system in good shape is easy: eating good food
(perhaps organic, certainly locally-grown), living a low-stress life, and
having plenty of sleep. No problem! And no need for expensive health
insurance (just something for major accidents).

**  As I said to Ruth when she asked for some advice about some social
question: "It's your life, live it!"

David.
(David MacClement) davd@ihug.co.nz 
www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/3142/Pg1-AD11.html
 or better: http://www.emucities.com.au/member/davd/
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