Cultural Kimchi

My brother Matt and I were shooting the breeze on Saturday and I happened to mention that the antibiotic Flagyl that I had take after my surgery had wiped out both the bad and good bacteria in my gut. There is a lot of evidence these days that the over-usage of antibiotics, particularly among children whose immune systems are still developing, can be extremely harmful. It seems to be the cause behind highly increased incidences of food allergies, asthma, and other auto-immune diseases. Too antiseptic can be bad for antibiotics kill both friend and foe. Like being naive, being sterile invites danger.

Good bacteria helps digest food, fight off disease, and enhance other bodily processes. In fact, without good bacteria, we would be dead. Matt mentioned a reference to a show on Public Radio about the benefits of sauerkraut as it is fermented and high in good bacteria. I have been eating probiotic yogurt because I can tell that the good bacteria in my gut has been wiped out as well as the bad. How? My breath reeks of death. I have been chewing gum to mask the cadaver-like odor.

I postulated that Korean Kimchi, a fermented cabbage with hot spicing, could operate the same as sauerkraut, just with an Asian slant and actually much more tasty than the simply sour Germanic type. So, I stopped by the Asian grocery store yesterday and bought a bucket of it. Wow! I think it is doing the trick.  My innards were rumbling in a good way and the breath death index seems to be trending downward. There is some debate whether good bacteria can survive the digestive process but I figure that it can't hurt to try with the hope that some good bacteria will pass through to the promise land of my gut.

Another word for bacteria is the word culture. We have heard this used with the cultivation of yogurt and there is an analogy between the culture in our guts and the culture of our society. The Law, particularly God's Law, is like Falgyl. It kills all and is essentially punitive. Love, on the other hand, is as good bacteria. Where love reigns, the policeman can go eat donuts. The Bible speaks of light and salt as being preservers of that which is good.

Where love is not, get your gun. So, communities are often in a war between good culture and bad culture. There are not enough cops on the beat to keep your television from being stolen if enough people want it. At best, law enforcement keeps the more virulent forces at bay but once those forces multiply, cops become ineffective if not bought out by evil. I have had some run ins with cops where it became clear that they were not just incompetent but also corrupt and dishonest. My petitions for redress were laughed at and dismissed. And I am naming names Lancaster City Police Dept. Yea, you.

Anyone with a nose to smell knows that our U.S. culture reeks of death. I was briefly watching Saturday Night Live the other night and the first sketch was an honest portrayal of Martin Luther King Jr.'s skirt chasing pathology. He was not just an occasional strayer from his marital vows but a serial adulterer. All humanity is in conflict between good and bad but this man, like JFK, had an extraordinary moral intelligence and imbecility. So, I thought the SNL sketch was fair. Our heroes need to be presented honestly. Hagiography is harmful.

The second sketch took a very diabolical turn where a spoof commercial of the language software company Rosetta Stone had characters saying that they wanted to learn how to speak Thai so that they could partake in the sex trade of that country, often with underage children. That this can pass as humor really bothered me. Watch what you laugh at, for it reveal your heart. And laughing at the sex trade and sex slavery is moral suicide. Someone's culture of conscience is already dead and the evil has spread. Laughing at someone else's pain and suffering seems to be the Devil's domain and just because we cannot hear the screams of suffering and abuse because it is drowned out by our cackles, does not mean that we can joke in such a manner. Saturday Night Death.