Cleaner than you = Better than you
This series of studies has interesting implications written all over it. Granted OT clean/unclean doesn’t perfectly line up with contemporary notions but still, there is some overlap. Sugar, sugar – white, clean, and neat …
A new study shows that people feel morally cleansed when they are physically clean, and as such are more inclined to judge others more harshly.
Read More http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/clean-people-feel-morally-superior/
This also hooks into the notions of dirty = animal, in some sad but not un-expected ways. Sad in terms of how some humans can think of the fact that an animal is “dirty” (as in physical contact with literal dirt) and have that as part of the constellation of their justifications for morally denigrating them and even killing and harming them unnecessarily, or worse yet, for fun. We claim on the one hand to not ‘be’ animals but then somehow pass judgement on “them” as if they were somehow accountable to our standards of cleanliness or personal hygiene. On what grounds would that possibly make sense? It’s even weirder given the fact that our own book of origins includes the little tidbit about man being made from dirt.
“then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Gen 2:7 NRSV)
Did you know people used to use urine as a tooth whitener?*
* Mark Morton, “A linguistic history of things other than food that people have put into their mouths,” Gastronomica 9 (2009): 6.
silly humans. dust to dust …
