It’s mid-2020 and America is as polarized as ever. This time the camps are split along lines on whether to quarantine or “get back to business”. What is to be done, how, and when?
I’m purposefully riffing on Judges 17:6 which says…
In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
It is a topic for another post but that verse needs to be applied within careful scope – it is about morality and doing right. How one chooses to live their life within a pandemic certainly does have moral imperatives, however…
Much of how one should order their life and act within these times is personal and unique to each individual AND often morally neutral.
Each person and even more-so family has quite differing and unique…
- Medical concerns (disease, obesity, immune system)
- Job situation and savings
- Ongoing debt, overhead, cost-of-living
- Access to health care and health insurance
- Proximity and availability of medical care in your area
- Age, genetics, and race (it’s not PC but it is reality that due to things like Vitamin-D levels, not all races are being equally hit)
- Risk tolerance
- Dependance on you by others
- Population density of where you reside
- Your mental health and what drives you insane or calms you
That was a quick list. The actual factors governing any one person’s response are MYRIAD. What’s even crazier is these factors are changing all the time!
Sometimes a person must choose between sub-optimal avenues.
Do you risk getting a scary disease or risk financial ruin? As the disease hits places like India these types of no-good-choice scenarios are more commonplace. Those of us with the wonderful blessing of being able to choose a relatively less awful path need to be sympathetic that many people, even in our own area, will have neither the luxury nor the choice.
The further you get away from a unique individual at the bottom of a power structure, the more likely it is that the person is not being understood, cared for, and properly guided. From presidents, to governors, mayors, superintendents, community leaders, pastors, parents, all the way down to the person themselves you can trace an increased ability to discern the most prudent course.
In short, people are insanely complex and should be left to govern their lives as much as possible.
This isn’t some rationalized libertarian response – if you read scripture with an eye towards this I believe you see that God has created incredible diversity amongst his image bearers and endowed them with self-responsibility.
Twin Errors: Liberal and Christian Reliance on One-Size-Fits-All Approaches
Two very different and rarely-overlapping groups are having trouble with this idea that people are unique and thus can have very different unique responses to this.
First, the liberals. There is an idea amongst the left that the world should be able to be centrally planned and controlled. Surely a wise philosopher king can ascertain the correct course for everyone! The caricature of this is Bernie Sanders and his, “you only really need one type of deodorant” mentality. The authoritarian left presumes that the trained leadership can and should dictate from on high over the unlearned and animalistic masses. Their language is filled with condescension masked as respect for position and credentials.
Second, the response of many Christians is confused by misapplication and broadening of the Moral Law.
Yes, and amen – there IS Truth with a capital “T”. There are many areas that are black and white and there is a real fight to be waged against pluralism.
THIS is NOT that.
Both groups are calling for a unified, controlled, and ordered response. Sometimes the Christian group is even calling for zero strictures of any kind (voluntary or not) as if some people don’t have real concerns and danger from this pandemic.
Christians can actually be at odds with each other and yet both clear in conscience and right before the Lord.
How About that Data?
Torture the statistics long enough and they will confess. Data should be informing decisions, yes, but a quick survey of the societal carnage shows… A polit-establishment with their own interests, a media structure of hype-for-ratings, a fearful public, and a scientific establishment trying to help discern and often being misunderstood.
And the most crushing aspect of all. Data and models change!
Sociologists are going to have a field day analyzing this event 20 years from now. People crave certainty, they and government decision-makers and the media are looking at science as a savior to lead the way and tell them what to expect. The trouble is, science can only do so much, so fast. Models and simulations are guesses based on smidges of known data and history. They both can and will change.
When the predications inevitably change, people have a hard time adjusting course. Group think has them firmly settled in a “camp” and to entertain heretical ideas feels traitorous.
But What About the Chaos?
With everyone doing what seems best for them won’t it be a chaotic mismatched mess? In a sense yes, but seen from another view, our lives are extraordinarily complex and the interconnectedness and decentralization surrounding our modernity is both, inscrutable, in-flux, chaotic and yet beautiful, adaptable, and effective.
Our response to this pandemic needs to be that as well.
The person who is rightly or wrongly terrified of this virus can and probably should still stay home or take whatever precautions they deem necessary. Those who disagree should be be kind, understanding, and serve one another in love.
The person who thinks they need to lead a more normal life should be able to do so. “You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain.” – Deuteronomy 25:4
Wherever one falls on the spectrum they should give the other the benefit of the doubt and not seek to sit in a seat of judgement on them.
If each business is deciding for themselves what is most loving to their employees and to their customers, we will be far closer to effectiveness with sense than the mishmash of rules from on high that are filled with head scratchers.
But But this is a Pandemic, Aren’t the Rules Different?
I believe a viral pandemic of all occasions is the one most in need of plurality of choice and freedom of action.
As of April 20th, 2020, here are a few things that seem to be generally agreed upon:
- This is a highly contagious, easily transmitted virus
- It won’t cease to be a problem for the world until herd immunity is reached (70-90% of the population)
- In general most people will get it at some point (vaccine or herd immunity change that some)
Here are a few things less agreed upon but still worth considering:
- Many people may have already had it
- It may have started spreading far earlier in 2020
- It doesn’t appear to usually be as deadly to healthy younger people
- A vaccine for a Coronavirus has never been created and it may never happen for this one – or if it does, it could take many months, if not years.
Holding those ideas in the balance, wouldn’t it make more sense that we allow the people who are least at risk to end up in the hospital to lead free, productive lives?
If they are self-selecting that they are healthy enough to move freely and get the virus, we will get closer to herd immunity far more quickly.
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