Swine flu is the latest in the series of diseases that have got better of the human natural defenses. It is killing people. It is unfortunate. To our sane mind, every life is important; every life is worth saving, especially if it is a human life!
Some of these diseases, I believe, we have brought upon ourselves by how we have chosen to structure the human society and as a consequence of the progress that we have made so far as a species.
To understand the impact of the structure of human society on our susceptibility to such diseases, we have to understand the theory of evolution.
Key idea in Darwin’s theory of evolution is the idea of survival of the fittest. Fittest, in the dumb animal world only mean the physically fit, in humans it gets little complex. In humans, the fittest is a combination of physically fit and mentally agile. After all, it is the intelligence of our species that has enabled us to virtually take over the entire Earth and subjugate every other life form, at least on this planet.
The whole process of natural selection is based on the fact that the species only allows its most fit members to prosper and breed. Therefore, over a period of time, it is the hardiest of the lot that survives and thrives.
Human species on the other hand has chosen a different route. It has created society that allows all humans to thrive. Humans spend huge amount of time and energy to continue to support the weak, which the nature would have eliminated a lot earlier. Human society allows all humans to breed at will, in contrast to the ablest in the animal world that sire most of the descendents. Humans have democratized reproduction, everyone gets to reproduce, and everyone gets one partner, more than one partner is discouraged. There by, human society carries all kind of members in its folds, weak and strong. It is the weak that are most susceptible to diseases, which otherwise the strong members of our species would have resisted easily.
The impact of the progress, made by our species so far, is no less humbling on our readiness to stand up to the diseases.
The current form of society has allowed humans to worry less about physical security and focus more on intellectual pursuits. This has led to never-before-thought-of innovations. Which in-turn has resulted in explosion of the number of members of our species. Our species has sought its continuity in numbers. However, we continue to make each individual ever more fragile. Our default immunity system is getting weaker. We need support of vaccinations, right from birth and all thru’ our life, so as not to succumb to various kind of diseases. The natural defense that a species builds against diseases is not happening any more in humans. We have externalized that process; we have delegated that to medicines and rely on them to defeat the diseases. For instance, it is very apparent that the human body will never evolve to have natural defenses against diseases like measles, diphtheria etc. The reason for lack of natural defenses against such diseases is because human children are vaccinated against them right at the birth itself. I am not advocating against child immunization programs, I’m just saying that we are making our species more and more fragile. Another case in point, I still remember the biology practical in the 9th standard. We were given a frog to dissect. The frog that I got, of course did not stand a chance. But, there was a group of girls who went about exploring the internals of the frog very carefully and sewed it up properly. Later, I remember my biology teacher telling us, that the frog will be ok once the effect of chloroform wears off. Even then, I remember getting curious, how come the frog does not require any sterilized surgical equipment or disinfectants, while any human, treated like that is sure to die of infections!
All this has created a situation where natural evolution of various viruses and diseases causing bacteria is pitted against the smarts of humans. I hope and wish that the human brain evolves faster than the evolution of the viruses.
You see, now that we have stopped the natural evolution of the defenses of the human body, that is our only chance!
