Allergies and Government

I have allegies; sort of a hayfever thingy, a bit of asthma, that sort of thing.

Hayfever is one of the worst. Summer means less Excitement and sunny fun, more a species of irritating nasal twitching, tickling, shorter breath and unknown red birthmark-like patches appearing in the skin of my back. Delightful.
My body has this terrible way of reacting to the most mundane benign object, on the shaky grounds that they sort of look like pathogens - bacteria, viruses, whatever. To give my immune system a voice and consciousness for a moment...

Sir, incoming pollen.
What? Scramble all mucus!
Sir, it's just pollen.
How can we be sure? Remember that time when we sneezed? Where's my mucus, dammit!?
That was on your orders, sir. The incoming pollen particles show now threat to the body. Are you sure you want that mucus, sir?
Yes! Dammit, don't answer back. Give 'em a broadside of snot! Engage the conjunctivitis!
[sighs]Engaging conjunctivitis, sir...

See, my body's immune system is stupid. I have these useful defences for the dangerous stuff (you know, if we didn't actually defend ourselves against cold, they'd kill us? That's why immuno-deficiency is such a terrible thing.), but they over-react and attack things that they have no business attacking.

Oh my gods!! Quick, restrict the airways! Seal all bronchioli! Incoming moth-wing scales!!!
Sir, they're no threat.
Ensign, you're relieved of duty! I will not stand for your insubordination. We could all be killed by these moth-wing scales!
[mutters]We will all be killed if he seals the airways...

So, anyway, I take antihistamines. It's the histamines that are responsible for this allergy reaction. They need to be kept in line. Let them get out of hand and they'll do helpful things like close your trachea so you can't breathe in the "deadly" (i.e.: harmless) pollen. So I have to suppress the stupid things with drugs each day.
The thing is, I can't blame them too much. Pollen is a small, invasive particulate foreign body, much like the bacteria and poisons my body is thinking it's reacting to. So drugs are the best way forward.

Now, why do I blather on about this?

It struck me last night as I sneezed in the fragrant air of Hyde Park, listening to the sirens wail by in the mist - the West is my body, the police are my immune system.
(This works for other large cultures/societies, but the "West" is where I live.)

We need the police to keep us from dying from crimes left out of control. There are always strange people who want to damage others in some way - whatever their reasons; poverty, ideology, revenge, insanity - so I need my immune system to protect me from illness.
But - I don't need my immune system to protect me from harmless exotic entities, the entities that just don't fit in with the body's idea of what should be here.

The police, our governments, their armed forces, private security concerns at airports - all react well to real threats. Of course, sometimes we get sick because a pathogen has invaded the West's body despite the best efforts of our immune system. We couldn't keep them out, and when they got in, we didn't spot that they were dangerous. Oops! Well, bodies get sick. Sometimes we need help and medicine to get better. All natural and part of living in a world with individual bodies.

What concerns me is that our policing forces sometimes get a little allergic. They react to non-threatening entities in much the same way as they do to the real threats, usually on the basis that the "offending" entity resembles another, truly dangerous, entity.

Look out! A man wearing a warm jacket in summer and carrying a bag! Better kill him!

Now, we need our police to look out for threats, of course. What body survives without an immune system? A very isolated body, perhaps? Sealed in a bubble away from pathogens. Not a very good way to live. So we have to have our immune system. But what species lets the immune system become the controlling part of the body? Should I let the anti-bodies, histamines and white blood cells run my life? What kind of mind do they have?*

Histamines in charge would be like stopping taking my medicines. I'd splutter and sneeze at every hint of dust or pollen. Bee stings would kill me. Tiny particles of dust from moths' wings would make my throat seal up and suffocate me. At worst, I'd die - at best, I'd have to live in isolation as if I had no immunities at all.

So, we have serious threats from nasty people who want to use violence as a method of getting their point across. Yes, set the police on them: the Army, Navy and Airforce too. Go get 'em! But do we give more power to these forces to operate without check? Should we let them become more important than the people they are here to protect?
NO.

_{*Well, literally, they have none, but for the purpose of this metaphor let's let them be a bit more sentient in their actions, okay?}