[lit-ideas] The Physiology of War


The list sometimes receives posts on the psychoanalytic roots of war, but the physiological roots of war are seldom discussed.


Our bodies are battlefields, strewn with the corpses of invader and defender (pus). Our immune system is constantly fighting off invasion, and its component cells include the immunological equivalent of soldiers, generals, and CIA.

There are, for example, ingenious things called neutrafils, which manufacture and deploy bleach and peroxide (bombs or chemical weapons) to use against heavy invasions.

Our immune system even has military historians, like T-cells, which remember every battle we've ever fought and recall the best strategy to combat a particular invasion.

In short, if our bodies weren't engaged in 24/7/365 war, we'd be like rotting blue cheese. Deader than a boiled mackerel.

This means that even the most nonviolent Jain priest, feeding the fleas in his special mattress, is also routinely killing all kinds of bacteria in his bloodstream. His body, because it is alive, is a battlefield just like yours and mine.

Eric

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