Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Sidetracked by books again


I can point to two different posts where I had specific goals that I was going to get to, and I am still behind.

I was going to start writing about my issues with fat, and then I saw a reference to a book, The Obesity Myth (by Paul Campos), which felt like it would be very relevant. I was supposed to be working on my facist/authoritarian reading and my Black History month reading, but okay, one book won't make much difference to either of those schedules. Then I started reading it.

The Obesity Myth is an excellent book, and it definitely fit in with the reading, but there were also things about how people will ignore facts, and where a fear of contamination goes along with certain issues. It seemed to relate to another book that I always intended to get to, The Panic Virus (by Seth Mnookin).

That is about how autism and vaccinations became associated in people's minds. I knew that there was a flawed study by a person with a financial stake, but I had not known about pre-existing vaccine fears, or some of the parental input. Most of my previous reading on immunizations had focused around flu shots.

Those books do relate to each other, at least in a sociological/psychological sense, but they also relate to some thoughts that I have had politically. And I almost don't want to write this today, because at a later point I believe I am going to go through and point out the flaws with every political label including independent voters, so I could be getting ahead of myself here.

It does go with one of the gardening books. Let me back up.

Some time ago - when vaccination was in the news - I remember someone talking about this mindset of purity. Some people have faith that they will eat the best foods and live the healthiest lifestyle, and that will protect them. They don't need vaccines.

Except that they do. One part of Panic Virus relates how a doctor who supports anti-vax parents tells them not to tell their friends, because we could drop below the necessary herd immunity levels if everyone did it.

If your secret to health or financial success or happiness is something that relies on other people not being able to have it, there are problems. First of all, you may be selfish and evil, which is worth thinking about. In addition, are you sure you can make it work?

At the start of Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades, Solomon spends a lot of time on how the nutritional value of food has decreased due to soil depletion. The extent to which it has dropped is less in organically grown food, but it's still a problem; how are you going to fix that?

You can worry about mercury in vaccines (though thimerasol was never in the MMR shot and has since been removed from other shots) but you are getting larger amounts in the air and quite possibly in your food. How are you going to fix that?

Speaking of things we have good science on, but that some people still refuse to believe, how are you going to fix global warming? Or bees dying off? Trying to keep your food uncontaminated and nutritious still assumes that the weather and pollinators are cooperating. That is not guaranteed.

I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this now, because I am running late and I am tired (there will be more on that tomorrow) and I know I will be circling back to it, but I will say this.

The next logical step to thinking "I am better than you" is thinking "I don't need to care about you".

It is always wrong.

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