TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY BOGEYMEN

Hot-button words for the “now” generation are: bacteria, chemicals, all-natural, no additives – and another dozen or so fear-words which, to me, are the evil concoctions of consumerism. A whole generation of TV addicts has become seriously neurotic.

This is not going to be yet another fogey-based screed against “kids nowadays.” What it will be I hope, is an honest look at the things we believe and more, the things we are made to believe.

Sitting in front of the TV (there’s far too much of that) I finally watched one too many commercials about the evils of bacteria. It’s a loaded word. It signals danger. It is razor-wire and electric shock rolled into one menacing form.

I had a conversation with a well-known pediatrician who is a leader in research at one of this country’s leading medical centres. I posited that many of the “allergies” and indeed, perhaps even asthma, which has reached near-epidemic proportions, can be at least partly blamed on the current addiction to slogans like “germ-free.” Nothing could sound more sensible. In fact, nothing could be more dangerously misleading.

He confirmed what most pediatricians and a large segment of the informed public believe that our need to sterilize everything in sight has led to the creation of an entire generation of kids who will not grow up with the germ-resistant antibodies we all need to survive. The people who make and market products like Lysol or Listerine don’t get it. I suspect that they really do, but marketing always trumps reality.

The doctor agreed with the currently accepted belief that exposure to bacteria is important in the development of a healthy immune system. Those commercials that characterize telephones as being rampant with microscopic organisms have frightened an entire generation of child-careful mothers. They are hypnotized by fear and surrounded by their sense of guilt that always comes with trying to be super-mom.

I reference Lysol only because their commercials are so prevalent. Any other disinfectant would do. The same goes for mouth wash which gets rid of “some” bacteria that are responsible “”often” for tooth decay. So an entire generation of frightened clean-freaks gargle away bacteria which are fundamental to good digestion and have little effect on halitosis which originates principally in the digestive system. not in the mouth as the gargle commercials would have you believe.

There is a much larger issue. It is the ability of an informed public to develop the critical skills needed to make sensible decisions. Lately there have been many articles about the apparent lack of critical skills in voters, which lead them into the trap of falling for scandal stories and mistaking rumour for truth. The shameless exploitation of Obama’s remarks about religious-freedom have morphed into “he’s a closet Muslim.” (No one is paying attention to the reality: the “mosque” is a Muslim community centre that happens to have a prayer room. The same neighbourhood houses enough topless bars to denigrate the sanctity of ground-zero.)

My favourite is still the obsession we have with bottled water. Not so long ago it was an industry that did not even exist. But because we are in terror of what comes out of the tap, we raise our children on “clean” bottled water and hardly notice that the incidence of tooth decay has risen dramatically because bottled water is not fluoridated.

Part of Looking Ahead is to examine reality in the light, not of rumour and scare-mongering, but with critical, informed, and researched opinion. But you might say that millions of people know nothing about the science of Astronomy, but are hooked on the pseudo-science of Astrology. It is these people who are helping to dumb down our society.

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