{"id":12073,"date":"2021-08-02T09:40:17","date_gmt":"2021-08-02T14:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/?p=12073"},"modified":"2021-08-02T09:41:17","modified_gmt":"2021-08-02T14:41:17","slug":"trust-your-foamy-immune-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2021\/08\/02\/trust-your-foamy-immune-system\/","title":{"rendered":"“Trust your (foamy) immune system”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“Trust your immune system.” One often hears this slogan, or some version of it, from people who are against vaccination. But what does it mean, or what should<\/em> it mean for an intensely social species like ours, living in a microbiologically fluid and creative environment like Earth\u2019s biosphere?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can only trust something if we know it to be well functioning. So on the supposition that trusting also means strengthening<\/em> and maintaining<\/em>, “trust your immune system” means to treat it as an individual protective shield, a kind of personal atmosphere around the planet of one\u2019s \u201cself,\u201d and to feed it with what it needs<\/a> — exercise, rest, a diet of nutritious and biotically regulating foods, and the like. In social philosopher Charles Taylor’s words<\/a>, this individualized immunity represents the “bounded” or “buffered” self, which, as he shows<\/a>, is the self of modern liberalism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this ignores both the biosociality<\/a> of humanity and the globalizing “anthropocenity<\/a>” of today’s world, so it is far from enough. Viruses do not respect individuality; they are microbial, and they spread laterally and rapidly across the boundaries of individuality we so treasure. They make individuality porous<\/em>, not bounded (which, for Taylor, is exactly what religion had<\/a> traditionally done; see my account in Shadowing the Anthropocene<\/a><\/em>, pp. 164-180, for more on that). <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

In a world as interconnected as ours, with novelty arising in the hybrid meshings of humans, animals, microbes, and technologies, we can only “trust our immune system” if we are successfully strengthening and maintaining our collective<\/em> immune system — one that can develop and rapidly disseminate effective vaccines for neutralizing the impact of novel viral agents. Vaccination is part of our collective defense, not separate from it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is, of course, an overlap and complementarity between the individual and collective approaches to viruses. Some measure of individual, or rather \u201cpod,\u201d protection \u2013 through masking and social distancing \u2013 has been necessary to give us the time to develop effective vaccine regimes. But ultimately the two are part of the same system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s a clear lesson here about politics. For decades now, the political model that has been hegemonic across much of the western, developed world, has been a neoliberal one, a Hayekian model of capitalism<\/a> that sees individual responsibility within an economically rational market as the be-all-and-end-all of everything, with collective responsibility limited to enabling that market to function. The Covid pandemic, like the 2008 economic recession before it, has shown that this model is incapable of providing the immunological supports our global society requires. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For all of his philosophical brattiness, German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk\u2019s writings<\/a> on the \u201cimmunological\u201d basis of human society are very insightful. They are certainly a necessary complement to the more existential analytic of other twentieth-century philosophers (like Martin Heidegger, whose work Sloterdijk attempts in many ways to rectify). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sloterdijk describes human existence as \u201cspherical\u201d in the sense that we are social and discursive beings who create \u201csymbolic air conditioning systems\u201d — \u201cspheres\u201d or \u201cbubbles\u201d made of interactive habits and rituals, images and narratives, social institutions, and technical networks — to shield us from the elements that would otherwise render collective life impossible. These spheres are unstable and require constant maintenance and renewal. The bursting of these “bubbles” results in \u201cexistential uprooting.\u201d When we ponder the end of the world, we are really pondering the \u201cdeath of a sphere\u201d (Bubbles<\/a><\/em>, pp. 25, 48, 54, et al.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over time, our spheres have grown in size — from small \u201cbubbles\u201d to large \u201corbs,\u201d and most recently into a kind of polyspheric \u201cfoam<\/a>\u201d that is thick, frothy, volatile, and planetary in scale. Civilization, in this sense, acts as a kind of \u201cgreenhouse\u201d that provides immunity to a humanity that would otherwise be vulnerable to all manner of invasions, viruses, and elemental incursions. Today’s “foam,” however — with its world market, media networks<\/a>, and \u201cindustrial-scale civilization,\u201d but also its national, local, and transversally subcultural diversities — is polyspherical, multiplicitous, and decentered, yet it is connected at multiple levels, with some things (such as viruses, both the biological and the electronic kind) moving through its connective tissue more fluidly than others. Since the last major world-bridging event, the Columbian encounter<\/a>, which brought the Afro-Eurasian landmass into contact with the smaller and younger (in human terms) American one and resulted in a massive die-off of humans and other species in the latter, the world has become increasingly interconnected at the microorganismic and bio-immunological level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The irony is that some of those saying we should “trust our immune systems” (the so-called<\/a> conservatives) are the same people who have undercut support of the larger immunological networks, such as health and welfare systems, that we require for any individual immunity to be able to function. Immunology is, in this sense, co-<\/em>immunology; it is a nested set of immunological operations that connect us more than they separate us. Building and maintaining immunity has less to do with “keeping things out” (whether with national borders, gated communities, or personal hygiene regimes) than with timing and spacing things out so as to allow for their appropriate integration. We live within spongy, connective membranes — a network of “co-fragile systems” — that are ultimately coextensive with the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That some of our gravest risks, from the Covid-19 virus to climate change, are also being produced<\/em> by the foamy system itself simply means that there is no “outside” to the foam. We are in the midst of a foam-forming, “aphrogenic” project (from the Greek aphros<\/a><\/em>, the centaurine sea-god whose name came to mean “foam”), one that brings us all together — humans, technologies, microorganisms, and all manner<\/a> of other cascading subject\/objectivations<\/a>. That project is a scary<\/a> prospect, once we do away with any illusions of sameness and unity; but it is what we have, and it is all we have. There are ways to learn to love it<\/a> and do it well. (Failing those, there will be ways to leave it. But we’re not there yet.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Trust your immune system.” One often hears this slogan, or some version of it, from people who are against vaccination. But what does it mean, or what should it mean for an intensely social species like ours, living in a microbiologically fluid and creative environment like Earth\u2019s biosphere? We can only trust something if we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[688615,4415],"tags":[16937,628436,660474,660470,628305,660472,660469,660473,25089,331,49872,660471],"class_list":["post-12073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anthropo_scene","category-ecophilosophy","tag-actor-network-theory","tag-anti-vaccination-movement","tag-co-immunism","tag-co-immunology","tag-covid-19","tag-foams","tag-immunity","tag-immunological-theory","tag-networks","tag-peter-sloterdijk","tag-public-health","tag-spheres"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4IC4a-38J","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10652,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2020\/05\/17\/covid-19-conspiracies-and-the-media-or-toward-an-epidemiology-of-media-trust\/","url_meta":{"origin":12073,"position":0},"title":"Covid-19 conspiracies and the media: or, Toward an epidemiology of media trust","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"May 17, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The global pandemic of Covid-19 has been accompanied by a proliferation of competing narratives of what the crisis is and means, and how it should be addressed. The UN and the World Health Organization have called this an \u201cinfodemic,\u201d that is, an epidemic (or pandemic) of information that, in its\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Media ecology"","block_context":{"text":"Media ecology","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/media_ecology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/rUDP6e5N9gw\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11724,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2021\/04\/12\/letter-to-a-vaccine-skeptic\/","url_meta":{"origin":12073,"position":1},"title":"Letter to a vaccine skeptic","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"April 12, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The following distills the essence of my responses to questions from a vaccine (and Covid) skeptical friend. I share it in case it's useful for others (and because it updates a few things I've written before on the topic). I'm not an epidemiologist and the comments on the science of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cultural politics"","block_context":{"text":"Cultural politics","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/cultural_politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2021\/04\/5760.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2021\/04\/5760.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2021\/04\/5760.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2021\/04\/5760.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12329,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2022\/01\/18\/the-feeling-of-the-world\/","url_meta":{"origin":12073,"position":2},"title":"The feeling of the world","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"January 18, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a working thesis on the present global moment: 1. For many people around the world, life has always been precarious. But for a certain class -- the global middle class (and up) -- the world had felt more or less secure and comfortable, as long as one knew how\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cultural politics"","block_context":{"text":"Cultural politics","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/cultural_politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2022\/01\/c_gorey-nobrdr.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10989,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2020\/08\/20\/hydroxychloroquine-and-other-things-an-sts-perspective\/","url_meta":{"origin":12073,"position":3},"title":"Hydroxychloroquine, and other things (an STS perspective)","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"August 20, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The Covid-19 pandemic has offered all kinds of interesting case studies for those who study controversies in science, technology, and medicine. Hydroxychloroquine is one of them. It's a bit unusual in that it highlights how the left-liberal mediasphere has sometimes followed similar trajectories as more commonly found on the (Trumpist)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Science & society"","block_context":{"text":"Science & society","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/science\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Kurt Hoffman","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tablet-mag-images.b-cdn.net\/production\/78845ee9d1ef8c1741566d92e45f64f45b7e5401-1500x1479.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11253,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2021\/01\/05\/do-your-own-research-conspiracy-practice-as-media-virus\/","url_meta":{"origin":12073,"position":4},"title":"‘Do your own research’: Conspiracy practice as media virus","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"January 5, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Conspiracy movements like QAnon are a kind of cultural virus that spreads rapidly and widely in the new global media environment. Like invasive species, they spread into diverse cultural ecosystems, colonizing them even as they take on new forms that mimic each environment\u2019s original inhabitants. To understand how they do\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cultural politics"","block_context":{"text":"Cultural politics","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/cultural_politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2021\/01\/the-kraken-legend-or-beast.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2021\/01\/the-kraken-legend-or-beast.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2021\/01\/the-kraken-legend-or-beast.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2021\/01\/the-kraken-legend-or-beast.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2021\/01\/the-kraken-legend-or-beast.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13767,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2024\/10\/15\/the-hurricane-conspiracy-complex\/","url_meta":{"origin":12073,"position":5},"title":"The hurricane conspiracy complex","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"October 15, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The big question around these back-to-back hurricanes in the southeast U.S. is not why they are happening (that\u2019s easy enough to answer), but why so many people find it easier to believe they were artificially generated by the U.S. government, the \u201cdeep state,\u201d FEMA, industry, or some euphemistic \u201cthey\u201d (and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Climate change"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/climate-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2024\/10\/image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12073"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12094,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12073\/revisions\/12094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}