The Vein of Speech 12: Is Everything Disgusting Bad?

Ugh, how disgusting!

Is everything disgusting bad?

A plate full of live worms writhing together, and a Chinese person eating them with relish; it's disgusting, isn't it? A sheep's cooked head with half-open eyes, a tongue hanging out of its mouth, and black teeth sits on a plate before you, and you eat it with relish; what about this one? Is this one disgusting too? We usually tend to consider things we find disgusting as fundamentally bad. Thus, we might look upon Chinese food culture, in which eating worms is a common and ancient tradition, as a lowly or at least bizarre culture. This time, I want to pitch a tent in the vein of this common judgment that says: "Whatever we find disgusting is morally low or at least bizarre." I want to oppose this judgment and show that the sense of disgust is not always a good arbiter of the rightness or wrongness of an action. Why? Please stay with me.

Did it disgust you? It might be cultural

Why are we disgusted? Where does disgust come from? A biological-psychological answer to this question is that the sense of disgust is an acquired trait for survival, as an infant feels no disgust toward anything and brings everything to its mouth, gradually learning in society what is worth eating and what is not. This acquired trait has survival value: disgust toward spoiled food and a rotting corpse normally makes us avoid eating that food and distance ourselves from the decaying corpse, which aids our health and survival. But disgusting things do not always and solely have survival value; they also have a local-historical aspect. Based on this, let us distinguish between local disgusts and pervasive (or universal) disgusts. The formation of disgust in an individual is often closely related to the lifestyle and culture in which the individual was raised. For example, someone raised in Iranian food culture is less likely to feel a sense of revulsion from eating kaleh pacheh. Even if they do not eat kaleh pacheh themselves, they do not look upon those who do as people with a bizarre food tradition. But an Iranian unfamiliar with Chinese culture (or similar places) is very likely to find a part of Chinese food culture, like eating worms, disgusting. Even up to this point, there is not much of a problem. Because being disgusted by something is not entirely within a person's control and is closely related to the lifestyle and culture in which the individual was raised. The problem begins when we automatically morally condemn anything we find disgusting: "Ugh, ugh, what kind of creatures are these, they eat worms!" Unaware that in our own culture, too, things can be found that are completely natural to us, but in another culture might seem completely unnatural and even savage (the example of kaleh pacheh is one of them).

A corner of the history of disgust

But not every disgusting thing is local. A rotting, decomposing corpse is probably initially disgusting to anyone in any culture, even if they gradually get used to it (I hope this example hasn't disgusted you). However, in this piece, I am dealing more with the voluntary and discretionary behaviors of people (like eating) that might be disgusting. Examples can be found of voluntary and discretionary human behaviors that are pervasively and universally disgusting; torture is one of them. Even those who deem torture permissible in specific cases and under special conditions consider these cases as exceptions to a general rule, and that general rule is the impermissibility of torture.

Nevertheless, there are examples of things that were once deemed improper and perhaps even disgusting, but over time people's judgments have changed. Interracial marriage (especially marriage between black and white people) was prohibited in 16 states of America until as late as 1967. One can imagine how disgusting marriage to a black person might have been for a white American (especially in the southern states) 50 years ago. But disgust is not always a good judge. Interracial marriage may not be the only case that was once disgusting but is not today; perhaps other similar contexts can be found.

 

Yaser Mirdamadi/ The Vein of Speech 12