The Pandemic Isn’t the Threat – the Paradigm Is – LewRockwell

To understand this, it is helpful to go back more than a century to what was then a vigorous debate between two French scientists: Louis Pasteur, and Antoine Bechamp.

Pasteur is well known for his role in laying the scientific groundwork for “germ theory”, the idea that it is pathogens–bacteria, viruses, fungi, etc.–that make us sick, and that our efforts at wellness are best focused on combatting these pathogens. Whether through drugs that kill them (antibiotics, etc.), protective measures such as masks and disinfectant to prevent them from reaching us, or vaccines to artificially stimulate the production of antibodies against them, the focus is on the germs.

Bechamp had a different view. He believed that it was not the presence or absence of a particular pathogen that made a person ill or well, but the underlying conditions of that person’s own body, or, as he put it “the terrain.” What was then known as “terrain theory” we might today call a “holistic” approach to medicine and healing. The focus is not so much on repelling outside invaders, as it is on strengthening the body’s own systems for fighting off anything that might be a threat.

How is this relevant to the totalitarian nightmares of the Twentieth Century?
One of these medical paradigms aligns itself very nicely with the notion that a dangerous pathogen is a matter of “public health” requiring government intervention. While germ theory does not require an authoritarian response to the perceived threat of pathogens, it is far more amenable to one than is the world view that our own individual “terrain” is what matters most for protecting our health.

If every other person around us is seen as a threat, because any one of us could be carrying a deadly germ over which we have no control, then it is that much easier for governments to justify imposing sweeping restrictions on everyone’s activities. All of a sudden, our most ordinary interactions are considered fraught with danger because of this new and very scary germ against which not a single one of us can possibly defend ourselves. We need someone to protect us, and the state is very conveniently close at hand.

via The Pandemic Isn’t the Threat – the Paradigm Is – LewRockwell