Tissue Rejection

Yesterday I went to see the movie ‘Silence’, a thought provoking portrayal of the brutally effective persecution of the Christian church in 17th century Japan. The spread of Christianity in Japan was certainly halted at that time. The human body has developed a complex immune system to protect us from infection caused by invading bacteria. It has evolved over millennia to become very effective. The innate immune system causes an immediate response to combat external threats. There is no doubt that on a cellular level the system is brutally effective. Macrophages consume and destroy invaders. Modern surgical transplants can prolong life but donors and recipients need to be closely matched lest the organ is rejected by its recipient. Even then, it is common practice to give the patient drugs to suppress the immune system so that the organ can imbed and function as intended. It’s a little like flooding a country with blue helmeted UN troops to prevent hostilities from breaking out between tribal enemies or between native residents and unwelcome immigrants even though, when properly integrated, they have a great deal to offer and can rejuvenate a community. ‘Boots on the ground’ is seldom an effective intervention. Also today the world is threatened by the introduction of GMO crops. To many people GMO means ‘God Move Over - we know better!’ GMOs present a long-term danger to the human body whose biology takes millennia to adapt to new foods so that they can be digested and their nutrients used to build healthy new tissue. Instead, longitudinal studies show that their introduction to the food of lab animals leads to cancerous mutations and premature death. Humanity needs an effective immune system to combat their proliferation. The cuckoo goes to extreme lengths to introduce its offspring to the nests of host birds. It destroys the eggs of the nesting bird so that its own egg will be incubated. Scientifically we can examine this behaviour and marvel both at the ingenuity and the treachery of the bird. Nature has permitted the evolution of the cuckoo, again, over millennia. The bird has evolved a self-limiting mechanism for survival and no one would advocate its extermination - except the host nesting birds if they knew what was going on. Whereas the cuckoo adds to the diversity of nature, GMOs only add to the bottom line profits of corporations and potential human extinction. Will our descendants look back and marvel at the greed of today’s corporations, and the stupidity of our species for introducing GMO foods, or will there be no descendants to look back because the resulting tumours and sterility have killed off the human race? Will we still imagine we can flood a country with blue helmets to quell riots between warring neighbours? Will imperialist military forces continue to impose solutions that favour their economic interests? Will civil protest curtail the arrival of economic migrants or will such ‘Tissue Rejection’ be suppressed by cries of xenophobic racism? Will we cause such social inflammation that we trigger a nuclear holocaust that results in the Silencing of the human species - a brutal persecution on a global scale? The planet will still be here even if our species is long gone. Eventually the nuclear winter will thaw and some radiation resistant insect will emerge into a Garden of Eden to start the whole game over.