Wednesday, April 15, 2020

"I am involved in Mankinde"


The Daily Beast is alarmed that there is a counter-protest movement against stay-at-home orders.  It reports a Facebook group of 25,000 supporting "Reopen NC" (North Carolina).  Which is "alarming," except that will all 25,000 show up at the capitol to protest?  Are all 25,000 residents of North Carolina?  How many are likely to be Russian trolls?

Just asking.

There's not a huge crowd in those pictures above, although certainly enough to trigger the most common standard of 10 or less gathered together.   Same thing here, in Minnesota, where a handful of people/Trump supporters are protesting the governor:

Too many people for a time of quarantine (none dare call it quarantine, but it almost is), but in the grand scheme, not that many people at all.

 Still, I don't think too many people have this idea:

“When it’s my time to go, God’s going to call me home,” Smith said. “I think that to live is inherently to take risks. I’m not concerned about this virus any more than I am about the flu.”

Which is fine; if you want to commit suicide, I won't reach out to stop you.  But you aren't committing suicide, you're risking the lives of everyone around you (suicide is terrible in its own right, don't misunderstand me).  Time to revive a little 17th century wisdom:

No man is an Iland, intire of itselfe; every man
is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine;
if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe
is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as
well as if a Manor of thy friends or of thine
owne were; any mans death diminishes me,
because I am involved in Mankinde;
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.

MEDITATION XVII
Devotions upon Emergent Occasions
John Donne

(I love that this is labeled the "Old English Version."  If it was Old English, it would be incomprehensible to all of us.  This is Early Modern English, the language of Shakespeare.  Yeah, it sounds King James-ish, because that's the same language.   Even the internet is full of bad information.  And it's not a poem, but a piece of prose.  Printing it as a poem is just, well....  Anyway....)

This is an argument against suicide, but also a reminded that we live in society, in community, and to infect one person is to risk infection of the herd.  If you aren't concerned about this virus any more than you are the flu, maybe the rest of us are.  In fact, I'm sure most of us are, and would appreciate you not spreading the risk when the rest of us are working as hard as we can to reduce it.  And please don't give me this crap:

The Constitution is not a suicide pact, and the police power to protect public health is clearly recognized by the 10th Amendment.  If all you can do is be stupid in public, maybe you should not be in public, huh?

We are all involved in each other's lives, whether we want to be or not.  Not understanding that is not, as Donne proves, some peculiarly American idea of "individualism." It's basic human selfishness.  We can overcome that.  Most of us do every day.  We cannot let the few who don't, endanger the rest of us, anymore than we allow people to set their own personal speed limits or fire off guns whenever it pleases them.

This isn't rocket science, people; it's not even a serious Constitutional issue.


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