Fear Fest: Germs! Wash Your Hands, Slob.
OCTOBER 11th, Germs
“To perceive things in the germ is intelligence”
-Lao Tzu
Welcome back folks. Yesterday we took a gander at the largest fear in the world, today, in a wonderful, albeit waifishly thin, example of juxtaposition we cover the smallest.
Germs are everywhere. They are on your hands, on your keyboard, on your mouse, everywhere. You’re sitting in a big pile of germs right now. That soda you’re drinking or that bag of chips you’re munching from? You guessed it, germ infested. So what is it about these little microbes that send people into such a frenzy?
Mysophobia is the fear of contamination. It’s sometimes referred to as germophobia is a cousin of OCD. Both OCD and mysophobia involve obsessive hand washing. While the OCD stricken mind does it to relieve stress, the mysophobe does it to remove germs. It can lead to severe panic attacks, where the subject will usually break down and scream or cry. If you’re a cruel person, this can be free entertainment.
I can’t help but think that these mysophobes are on to something. Think about it, what kills more people annually than Oj Simpson and Luke Wilson movies combined? Germs. What killed roughly 100 million people in the 1300 and 1400’s? Germs. What was used in the 1700’s to kill thousands of Native Americans? Germs. They were here before us, and they will feast on our corpses long after we’re gone.
Germ’s resolve to kill makes me think back to what Kyle Reese said to a young Sarah Connor. “It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.” Granted, he was referring to a cybernetic killing machine, but the same can be said of germs.
Even in recent history germs have played their part in the march of death. When settlers from Europe landed here in the new world, a third of the native population dropped dead from the germs, bacteria, and parasites brought over. The Japanese had a policy to kill gaijin (foreigners) on sight because they feared contamination both culturally and as a health concern. In a quirky bit of culture info, Japanese people will spit out mucus while Europeans will use handkerchiefs. Since Japan had no great plague, they worry less about spreading germs and look at handkerchiefs with disgust.
There is a flip side of mysophobia. The more you avoid germs, the better your odds are of getting sick. I know some people question it, but let’s all be honest, vaccinations work. If you expose yourself to germs, your body builds up immunity to them and can fight back. Of course, there is no substitution for genetics. Most people with predominantly European heritage are immune to the Black Death because of genetics.
Today the germ warfare is an industry supported by mad scientists and dictators. Between sporadic nerve gas attacks and the occasional anthrax scare, I’m surprised we leave our homes without a respirator. Even our bodies are walking germ factories. As it stands, urine is the only bodily fluid that isn’t considered a biohazard.
THE ANSWER: Mysophobia is a lifestyle. People like Mark Summers and Howie Mandel make it work for them. However, if you see someone taking a turn toward Howard Hughes, you may want to step in. Mysophobia is a full fledged mental disorder and can ruin a persons life.