The big price of decency – how it made people lose fur and skin color, and then innocence, unity, equality, freedom and peace

Recently, I had a few ideas. Do they make any sense to you?

As I explained before, most of us need to take Vitamin D. It builds and protects our bones but plays many other roles in our body too. Vitamins are complex molecules that we need but cannot synthesize ourselves. Vitamin D can be created in our skin under influence of ultra-violet sunlight. However, so much sun exposure is needed that it would leave us at risk of skin cancer (melanoma).

So who make Vitamin D that we may take it from? Bacteria in our intestines. Some others there make also Vitamin K. The difference is, after K is excreted by the bacteria, it is taken in into our bloodstream, but not D. That’s created beyond the point where we can still absorb it. Vitamin D is thus excreted with the bowel movement. Animals that eat from the ground so get enough D. But we rinse our food. We eat from tables and plates. (Even our domesticated animals might eat from cleaned floors.) The price: we must find ways to still get D. Plenty of sun was one trick. We lost most of our fur and so could generate D. From bear to bare.

However, that meant that touch became naked skin to skin. We became in danger of sexual stimulation whenever and almost wherever we touched each other. We needed social codes and conventions of how (not) to touch in order to not become sexual all the time. That made us colder, more isolated and lonely. The solution, funnily, was to bond with a sexual partner and become one flesh. Having sex all over the place did not work against the aloneness.

Exposing bare skin and hair became ways to upgrade our market value and chances to not stay alone, largely masking our in-born beauty that’s more than skin-deep. We grew to enjoy petting hairy animals – and also started eating them in a primitive attempt to regain what we lost?

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When some humans moved to colder regions, they needed more clothing and received less sun as it was. Then, how to survive this lack of sun-skin-generated Vitamin D? Solution: losing most of their skin pigmentation. A lighter skin more easily uptakes sunlight. Rickets and dark tones may break my bones, but fairness will never break me?

One would think that the rare pale naked skin would fill its exotic bearers with enough pride not to need to look down on others for self-esteem, but it didn’t. Once they reconnected with their darker brethren, they found them “less advanced” instead of admitting that their own adaptation was not “progress” but in fact a deterioration, which left them less protected against sunburn and melanoma, and with brittle hair and split ends. And their long feeble hair needed to be bundled all the time not to block their fields of vision.

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It used to be that tensions between groups of people were mainly between neighboring countries, for territory and to enslave “the other.”

Later, peoples were being categorized according to customs and especially language. True, possibilities and impossibilities of a language do color how we think, but such differences have been grossly exaggerated to “justify” wars between the good (us) and the wicked (them). Germans and Anglo-Saxons are of course only linguistic categories, nor moral ones.

When Christianity spread among the pale-faced, they claimed superiority because they had Monotheism, so conveniently they asserted a right to trade and enslave “inferior” blacks as if animals or merchandise. Yet, the lie of racism was thin because, if the difference was religious truth, that can be passed on. (Besides, the founders of Christianity most probably were not fair-skinned or blue-eyed.)

Six hundred years ago, skin color was still completely immaterial but became an excuse to “justify” slavery and slave trade. “Progress” in science then brought genetics and Evolution Theory, which gave the concepts to label blacks as lower creatures supposedly closer to apes.

Even after abolition of slavery, “racial” profiling stayed popular – while humans all are rather of one race: homo sapiense sapience. The medical world continued to measure skulls to pinpoint irrelevant differences between populations. These variations were now needed to “justify” colonialism – and the mass murder of Jews.

Another new excuse to divide and oppress is based on belief. The Inquisition in Spain burned Jews because they did not want to convert to their “superior” religion, not because of those “lowly” lineages.

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Meanwhile, “good old” nationalism is still alive, as we see in wars, protectionism (closing borders) and international sport competitions. “Race” is still the pretext for White Supremacists, uninterested if a Jew was baptized; but extremist Muslims wouldn’t bother Islamic Jews.

In fact, of course, there are only two groups of people: people who divide mankind into two and people who don’t. Hatred, nationalism, racism, supremacy, colonialism and wars have long roots and are hard to weed. While there is nothing wrong with being proud and continuing our identities, wrong is to assume that some of us are automatically entitled to more than others. And that is where these oppressions tie in with classism.

And here we are now: naked, lonely, oversexed (not you, but almost everyone else), with different skin colors and divided by racism and entitlement “thinking.” This all, just because we wanted to be decent and eat from a plate. It’s been a huge price, if you ask me.

Now beginning to eat like animals is too late. Just have your Vitamin D, have an intimate partner to bond with, have platonic clothed hugs, don’t abuse sex, don’t support wars and do abandon arrogant ideas; and if you are white, have haircuts and a multi-ethnic circle of friends.

The small vitamin with the big consequences.

About the Author

MM is a prolific and creative writer and thinker, previously a daily blog contributor to the TOI. He often makes his readers laugh, mad, or assume he's nuts—close to perfect blogging. He's proud that his analytical short comments are removed both from left-wing and right-wing news sites. None of his content is generated by the new bore on the block, AI. * As a frontier thinker, he sees things many don't yet. He's half a prophet. Half. Let's not exaggerate. Or not at all because he doesn't claim G^d talks to him. He gives him good ideas—that's all. MM doesn't believe that people observe and think in a vacuum. He, therefore, wanted a broad bio that readers interested can track a bit what (lack of) backgrounds, experiences, and educations contribute to his visions. * This year, he will prioritize getting his unpublished books published rather than just blog posts. Next year, he hopes to focus on activism against human extinction. To find less-recent posts on a subject XXX among his over 2000 archived ones, go to the right-top corner of a Times of Israel page, click on the search icon and search "zuiden, XXX". One can find a second, wilder blog, to which one may subscribe too, here: https://mmvanzuiden.wordpress.com/ or by clicking on the globe icon next to his picture on top. * Like most of his readers, he believes in being friendly, respectful, and loyal. However, if you think those are his absolute top priorities, you might end up disappointed. His first loyalty is to the truth. He will try to stay within the limits of democratic and Jewish law, but he won't lie to support opinions or people when don't deserve that. (Yet, we all make honest mistakes, which is just fine and does not justify losing support.) He admits that he sometimes exaggerates to make a point, which could have him come across as nasty, while in actuality, he's quite a lovely person to interact with. He holds - how Dutch - that a strong opinion doesn't imply intolerance of other views. * Sometimes he's misunderstood because his wide and diverse field of vision seldomly fits any specialist's box. But that's exactly what some love about him. He has written a lot about Psychology (including Sexuality and Abuse), Medicine (including physical immortality), Science (including basic statistics), Politics (Israel, the US, and the Netherlands, Activism - more than leftwing or rightwing, he hopes to highlight reality), Oppression and Liberation (intersectionally, for young people, the elderly, non-Whites, women, workers, Jews, LGBTQIA+, foreigners and anyone else who's dehumanized or exploited), Integrity, Philosophy, Jews (Judaism, Zionism, Holocaust and Jewish Liberation), the Climate Crisis, Ecology and Veganism, Affairs from the news, or the Torah Portion of the Week, or new insights that suddenly befell him. * Chronologically, his most influential teachers are his parents, Nico (natan) van Zuiden and Betty (beisye) Nieweg, Wim Kan, Mozart, Harvey Jackins, Marshal Rosenberg, Reb Shlomo Carlebach, and, lehavdil bein chayim lechayim, Rabbi Dr. Natan Lopes Cardozo, Rav Zev Leff, and Rav Meir Lubin. This short list doesn't mean to disrespect others who taught him a lot or a little. One of his rabbis calls him Mr. Innovation [Ish haChidushim]. Yet, his originalities seem to root deeply in traditional Judaism, though they may grow in unexpected directions. In fact, he claims he's modernizing nothing. Rather, mainly basing himself on the basic Hebrew Torah text, he tries to rediscover classical Jewish thought almost lost in thousands of years of stifling Gentile domination and Jewish assimilation. (He pleads for a close reading of the Torah instead of going by rough assumptions of what it would probably mean and before fleeing to Commentaries.) This, in all aspects of life, but prominently in the areas of Free Will, Activism, Homosexuality for men, and Redemption. * He hopes that his words will inspire and inform, and disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed. He aims to bring a fresh perspective rather than harp on the obvious and familiar. When he can, he loves to write encyclopedic overviews. He doesn't expect his readers to agree. Rather, original minds should be disputed. In short, his main political positions are among others: anti-Trumpism, for Zionism, Intersectionality, non-violence, anti those who abuse democratic liberties, anti the fake ME peace process, for original-Orthodoxy, pro-Science, pro-Free Will, anti-blaming-the-victim, and for down-to-earth, classical optimism, and happiness. Read his blog on how he attempts to bridge any tensions between those ideas or fields. * He is a fetal survivor of the pharmaceutical industry (https://diethylstilbestrol.co.uk/studies/des-and-psychological-health/), born in 1953 to his parents who were Dutch-Jewish Holocaust survivors who met in the largest concentration camp in the Netherlands, Westerbork. He grew up a humble listener. It took him decades to become a speaker too, and decades more to admit to being a genius. But his humility was his to keep. And so was his honesty. Bullies and con artists almost instantaneously envy and hate him. He hopes to bring new things and not just preach to the choir. * He holds a BA in medicine (University of Amsterdam) – is half a doctor. He practices Re-evaluation Co-counseling since 1977, is not an official teacher anymore, and became a friendly, powerful therapist. He became a social activist, became religious, made Aliyah, and raised three wonderful kids. Previously, for decades, he was known to the Jerusalem Post readers as a frequent letter writer. For a couple of years, he was active in hasbara to the Dutch-speaking public. He wrote an unpublished tome about Jewish Free Will. He's a strict vegan since 2008. He's an Orthodox Jew but not a rabbi. * His writing has been made possible by an allowance for second-generation Holocaust survivors from the Netherlands. It has been his dream since he was 38 to try to make a difference by teaching through writing. He had three times 9-out-of-10 for Dutch at his high school finals but is spending his days communicating in English and Hebrew - how ironic. G-d must have a fine sense of humor. In case you wonder - yes, he is a bit dyslectic. If you're a native English speaker and wonder why you should read from people whose English is only their second language, consider the advantage of having an original peek outside of your cultural bubble. * To send any personal reaction to him, scroll to the top of the blog post and click Contact Me. * His newest books you may find here: https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AMoshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&s=relevancerank&text=Moshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1