Wisdom of Whores, Part 1

As I made my way out of the SkyTrain station, some interesting thoughts arose from reading The Wisdom of Whores.

I'm surrounded by communicable disease epidemiology all day now, and public health follows me everywhere. It really is quite fascinating. It's not the kind of science that I'm used to--in fact, I'm still not sure if it's a science at all, strictly speaking. What I did realize though, was that perhaps I'm not really cut out for some of this stuff.

The book has proven very engaging so far, possibly aided by exotic and rather shady locales, the horrific subject matter of AIDS and an equally appalling but strangely curious cast of characters. Before I started volunteering with the Health Van, there was no way I could have even imagined such populations as described in the book. Sure, I've seen ...things... in movies, but they're so limited and commercialized.

The scents and sounds of a writhing darkness, the threat of disease and the urgency of desire flaunting themselves on every dimly lit street corner, all this is too much for my sheltered mind to process. --I would not last an hour in the frontlines of HIV/AIDS public health. I don't have the stomach for it.

Suppose I've been wrong, that I can't be both good and bad, kind and punishing, honourable and underhanded. That to delve into the deepest pit of human decadence, even just to collect scientific evidence, is to lose whatever good I have left in myself--and possibly more: whatever faith I have left for humanity. Could it be that there is no justification for sacrificing certain ethical principles for the greater good? Could what Franklin said about liberty and security be true?