Daniel Dennett likes to make a comparison between the Lancet fluke, which zombifies the nervous systems of ants so that they are readily eaten by cows, and religiously toxic ideas that propagate and cause their hosts to give up their lives.
Well that comparison is all very well and good, but ideas don't hold a candle to the real deal. I recently caught a special on rabies and it was terrifying, sad, and surreal.
This is true zombification in the human animal. This virus scrambles the brain and turns you into a violent, crazy zombie capable of spreading its madness with a frothy bite. The reality of this invading disease never hit me until I saw footage of rabies victims strapped to beds, dying. Truly sad and scary stuff.
I think it's significant that a disease exists that can get in our brains and change us profoundly. I think it's proof positive that our sense of self, our souls, are not whole units, but the result of cumulative processes that have no hope of surviving beyond their biology.
