Riffraff and Bugaboos

In the comments to my post on reaching in toilets, Nate said:

It falls back on the human tendency toward dualism, to assign everything with “essences.” A toilet, in our minds, is ESSENTIALLY unclean. And it’s this same “malfunction” of the brain that allows us to see people as more than meat machines. [...] You rely too much on logic, not enough on instinct. Your genes will not be selected for. You’re an evolutionary failure.

Add to that: I looooooove bitter foods. Yeesh… Evolutionary failure indeed. It’s a wonder I haven’t tripped into a volcano by now.

On a somewhat related thought: It seems like people who claim sensitivity to things like radiation and aspartame are usually ridiculed as hypochondriacs and wackos. Shouldn’t we give them a little more respect? Just because most of us haven’t developed acute reactions to “man-made” carcinogens, we don’t need to resent those that have. After all—it’s their genes that might save our species!

If you were about to relieve yourself but accidentally dropped a quarter in the toilet, would you reach in and take it out? If so, would you cringe? After all, the water is clean, and the quarter, if flushed, could potentially get stuck in a pipe. By falling in the water, the quarter has no doubt gotten cleaner. Depending on what you’ve been doing with your hands—no, nothing like that; I mean typing, writing, handling keys, etc.—reaching into the toilet will most likely make your hand cleaner as well. After relieving yourself, you were probably planning to wash your hands anyway. Oh, and did I mention the quarter is worth 25 cents?

Despite all these strong arguments in favor of reaching in, I would guess that a majority of people would take their chances flushing it down, especially if the toilet was not their own. Doesn’t that seem ridiculous?

And if you’re wondering, yes, I did get my quarter back.