On Covid-19 and civic responsibility
John Wilson, Member and Executive Committee Member, TEAM Global | 16 October 2021
The Covid-19 pandemic has not only killed over 600,000 Americans, brought the medical system to the breaking point, disrupted the economy, and interrupted the daily lives of nearly everyone in the country, it has also encouraged many Americans to take a rather curious view of their rights and responsibilities as citizens. In the face of the most serious epidemic in a century, many have come to see their right not to wear masks in closed spaces, to ignore social distancing in areas of high infection, and to refuse highly effective vaccines as among the most fundamental and cherished of human liberties. Ironically those who scream most loudly about such rights are strangely silent about their patriotic duty to their country to protect the lives and health of their fellow citizens and to help restore normality and prosperity by making modest sacrifices to bring the corona virus under control.
Persons often forget that no nation has ever maintained its fundamental liberties for long unless it has also had a strong sense of civic responsibility and that no rights are absolute. Thankfully we enjoy a high degree of free speech, but this does not extend to shouting fire in a crowded theatre or committing libel. A mentally competent adult has a perfect right to die rather than to accept vital medical procedures out of religious conviction, but he does not have the right to kill his child by denying that child essential treatment. There is a constitutional right for citizens peaceably to assemble and to petition their government for redress of grievances, but this does not protect armed mobs when they attack representative assemblies to overturn lawful democratic elections.
Supporters of the modern Republican Party often see themselves as conservatives. Traditional conservative values include a limited role for government, efficiency and sensible use of tax money by public agencies, low taxation, reducing deficits in the interests of future generations, and a strong belief that individuals should assume more personal responsibility for their own welfare and that of their families. Ironically, by arguing that they should be free to do whatever they like in the present crisis, modern Republicans have undercut the very values they say they profess.
Many who aggressively assert their individual rights to ignore scientific methods of containing the virus are the same persons who then require intensive hospital treatment for perfectly avoidable illness. When they do, they suddenly demand others pay the cost whether they be taxpayers who support public hospitals and Medicare and Medicaid or private businesses facing increasing health insurance premiums for their employees.
Had everyone including those politicians who have encouraged and exploited massive resistance for short term political gain followed fact based policies to contain the pandemic, thousands of our fellow countrymen would still be alive and many others would have avoided the long term consequences of illness. In addition, people’s daily lives would almost certainly now be closer to normal and the economy would be in a better state.
Resistance to a scientific approach to the pandemic has hardly advanced the values genuine conservatives espouse. Governments at all levels have had to assume a longer and greater role in the pandemic than should have been necessary, the national debt is significantly higher than it should have been, taxes over the next generation will be higher to pay down this debt, and supporters of the modern Republican party including their party leaders have been anything but models of personal responsibility.
The upcoming 80th anniversary of Pearl Harbour might be an excellent time to reflect on what constitutes a genuine sense of duty and real personal sacrifice. During World War II and the Cold War, an entire generation accepted at high cost the call to military service. Thousands lost their lives and many of the wounded had to face a lifetime of disability. Their patriotism and the considerable price they paid brought about the defeat of Nazi Germany and Japan, halted the spread of communist dictatorships, and guaranteed the liberties many of us still prize. I often wonder what those veterans would have thought had they been told then that many in the present generation would consider wearing masks or being vaccinated as far too great a personal sacrifice for them to make for their country.
Seeing political opportunists encourage determined resistance to the fairly modest inconveniences necessary to bring a national emergency under control, one wonders what will come next. Will we see increased resistance to the notion that citizens should pay their fair share of tax to support the police, national defence, and essential public services such as education and public health and will taxation come to be considered a matter entirely of personal choice? In event of a serious threat to the very survival of the nation, will we hear that citizens have no duty whatsoever to defend their country? The resulting chaos and anarchy really would make the violent January 6th armed assault on the national capitol seem, by comparison, like an ordinary tourist event.
This post only reflects the views of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of the London Association of Phi Beta Kappa or Phi Beta Kappa.
