Talking dirty

?Cleanliness is godliness? has almost reached levels of genetic conditioning. It?s okay to ?look? dishevelled and dirty.

An important scientific finding can change the way people live. At the very least, it won’t change the way some people live. Scientists, bless their non-judgmental value systems, have figured out that rats in drains and farms have a far more robust immune system than do human beings. Living in dirty conditions triggers the immune system to function better. Conclusion: hygienic conditions may not be the answer to live healthy.

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This may seem rather obvious. Rats, also classed as vermin, live in dirt, live
on dirt and love the dirt. Humans, when they start exploring soon after birth, also seem to love dirt. But teaching starts off early in life to develop a distinct distaste for muck.

‘Cleanliness is godliness’ has almost reached levels of genetic conditioning. It’s okay to ‘look’ dishevelled and dirty, as long as one is wearing clean clothes and living neat. To be dirty spells trouble — pity for those who don’t know better and disdain for the ones who opt to live dirty. Now, if scientists were to extend their studies on human beings to prove that hygienic conditions inhibit the immune system, the 17-year-old ‘hygiene hypothesis’ might become theory. According to this hypothesis, sanitised living conditions are to be blamed for an increase in allergic conditions. This has, in fact, echoes in traditional ‘home’ advice, where parents are advised to allow kids to explore their environment, bad plastic, mud and all, instead of bringing them up on superclean, super-refined, super-quality environments.