“I’m a Libertarian. I believe we all have the right to choose the way we want to go to hell.”
At first glance, there is something fundamentally right about that statement — I mean, isn’t that the American Way? Live and let live? Isn’t that what the American Dream is all about? Isn’t that MY constitutional right? I can do whatever I choose to do — whatever I want to do — because it is MY right. And you can’t limit, alter, or change that right to do whatever I want whenever I want to because that would be un-American. I can go to hell any way I choose. Fuck you very much.
We Americans seem to have this fascination with our ability to conquer the world, pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, live totally self-sufficient lives. Just take your hands off me, don’t tax me, don’t limit me, don’t frustrate me, and hell help me, don’t you ever think that I should think about what is good for anyone other than myself. Don’t. That’s fundamentally un-American. I can take care of myself. I am, after all, the embodiment of the frontiersman, the self-empowered, self-important I-don’t-need-anyone, bring on the grizzly bear, kind-of-guy. Or gal. Or, whatever gender I choose to be at this given moment. Look up the definition of “American” in the dictionary and I bet you will find that a synonym for American is “rugged individual.”
And, further more, all that caring about other people, all that socialism, well, that’s counter to the law of nature. You know what I mean — survival of the fittest. Anything else, you know, all that worrying about poor people and sick people, well, it just waters down the breeding stock. Grow up. Grab yourself by the bootstraps and pull. Pull harder. Pull till you can’t pull anymore.
As the fall of Afghanistan serves to remind us that we still haven’t learned the lessons of our failure in Viet Nam, we apparently haven’t realized that this isn’t the 1920s and Herbert Hoover has been dead a very long time. Besides the concept of the “rugged individual” was never viable, as the Great Depression demonstrated. We saw what happened when we followed Hoover’s contention that government should not and need not assert itself over the lives of the American people. The ravages of the Great Depression, which might have been mitigated, devastated this country.
But there is a deeper problem. The fundamental tenet of rugged individualism ignores the simple fact that the only time rugged individualism is even a remote possibility would be when, and if, someone decided to live alone in the wilderness. And I mean alone. Totally away from any human contact. Just you, the critters, and nature.
Save for those few who, perhaps, could live alone and apart from all human contact, the fact of the matter is that humans emerged at a strange point in evolution: As much as we are well aware of ourselves as individuals, we are also deeply social. There is danger at both extremes — too social and we not only lose our sense of self, but we also become subject to the kind of “herd mentality” that fueled the Third Reich and which is in evidence in riots. When we lose a sense of who we are, all manner of violence is possible. Yet, on the other hand, when we fail to be “appropriately socialized,” the result is the kind of anti-social behavior that compels serial killers to murder without the check of conscience. Achieving a balance between the two isn’t easy, but it can and must be done.
Unfortunately, if COVID has taught us anything, it has taught us that we have moved closer to becoming a country of serial killers than we have to being a people who aspire to and share a common good. In fact, “If it feels good, then do it” in the 1960s, in Nike’s Hedonism Campaign, became “Just do it.” Don’t think about the consequences of what you are about to do, just do it, whatever it is, because it is what you want to do. It doesn’t matter if it feels good, if it is self-destructive, or if it negatively impacts other people. Just do it. In fact, there is no way to include “the other” in this equation. There is no room for thinking about what you are about to do either. There is no room for moral reflection.
Every situation is reduced down to one and only one fact: Me and what I want.
So, if I don’t want to wear as mask, well, too bad for you.
If I don’t want to be vaccinated, well, too bad for you.
If I don’t want to treat you with respect because I don’t like the color of your skin, or, if I want to cancel you because you said something I don’t like, too bad for you.
But this misses a fundamental reality of human life: Again, unless you are living alone in the wilderness with the critters, all actions — every human action — has social implications. When someone chooses not to vaccinate, there are consequences, not just for that person, but for all of us.
When a person contracts COVID, we all pay for that — we pay especially when that person doesn’t have health insurance. We pay when insurance rates rise and we pay more for basic coverage. We pay when we can’t get the services we need because someone who could have gotten a vaccination didn’t and who, as a result, has taken a bed in an ICU. Speaking of ICUs, because of people who have refused to be vaccinated, a number of hospitals are now no longer able to treat people who have had a heart attack or a stroke. For these people, this is a potential death sentence. Health care workers suffer. First responders suffer. Another lock-down will cripple the economy further. More lives will be disrupted. Potentially, people with lives that were functional will find themselves on the street — homeless and without the ability to meet even the most basic human needs.
One of the fundamental errors of the Post Hedonism Campaign, coupled with Situational Ethics (intentions and consequences don’t matter — the situation is normative in and of itself) is the failure to realize that, intended or not, foreseen or not, all actions have consequences. Asserting that you are not responsible for something because you didn’t intend it to happen doesn’t work. Such an assertion doesn’t mitigate your responsibility for what has happened.
You did it. You own it.
If COVID has taught us anything, it has taught us we are selfish, shortsighted, and willfully blind to the consequences of our actions. It is time for that to stop.
The argument that the vaccine has side effects doesn’t hold water. Drinking a beer has side effects. Eating fast food has side effects. Exceeding the speed limit has side effects. Driving a car has side effects for the environment. To act is to create side effects. When you refuse to be vaccinated there are side effects too — only the rest of us suffer them when you contract COVID, or when we have to enter another lock down.
You did it. You own it.
It has been said that a house divided cannot stand. Well, neither can a house inhabited by selfish people. And we are selfish.
