86 The Biological Errors 



police work of our body, in destroying cells which 

 are worn out and decomposed. The macrophages 

 which perform this latter function employ the pro- 

 cess of total absorption. This process of killing 

 and destroying harmful cells is quite different, 

 however, from the process of complete destruc- 

 tion between naturally antagonistic beings such as 

 the wolf and sheep. The destruction performed 

 by the macrophages resembles in certain aspects 

 much more the execution of a criminal within 

 the state. The total death of the decomposed 

 cells, like that of the criminal, result in the main- 

 tenance of the association. It is an act of bio- 

 logical justice. Both biological justice and social 

 justice, without being identical, are certainly anal- 

 ogous because they have the same object — the 

 maintenance of the association. 



We see then that there are certain forms of 

 struggle which are normal in society, — those which 

 operate, by the special nature of their processes, 

 to maintain the association. If all struggles led 

 to the destruction of the association, societies 

 would never have been formed on the earth. Of 

 course, the macrophages are not animated by a 

 conscious desire to suppress the decomposed ele- 

 ments in order to maintain the health of the 

 entire organism. Sometimes the macrophages are 

 deceived and attack healthy cells, but these are 

 strong enough to prevent the macrophages from 

 conquering them, while the enfeebled cells suc- 

 cumb. By the complex play of these attacks and 



