However, what has been clear to me all along is that despite the virus, life must go on. There is a great cost in lives lost due to poverty resulting from the governments reaction to the virus. Believing as I do that the Constitutionally enumerated rights are indeed gifted to us by the Creator God, it is natural then that I would question the morality of anyone who claims the authority to snatch those rights from us. Moreover, it seems to me that those that are especially vulnerable, or who think they may be, should look to isolate themselves from society. It is not society's job to isolate itself for the sake of the vulnerable, because society can not know each individual's circumstance.
All these ideas and more are contained in a well written article today at The Federalist by Jonathon Ashbach entitled How Cowardice and Class Privilege Divide Support For Coronavirus Lockdowns Indeed, Ashbach says what I have been trying to say much better than I do, which gentle readers, is why he is a professional while your servant is but a gifted amateur. So here is the money quote:
Point out the compounded economic and personal hardship that our response has inflicted, and in many quarters you will meet at best the dismissive retort that one can’t measure lives against the economy and at worst with the accusation that you are a selfish &^%$# who values your freedom over others’ wellbeing.
Now, there is a kernel of insight in this response. As a severe critic of libertarianism, I find it heartening that people are expressing at least subconscious recognition that freedom is not an intrinsic good. Valuable as it is, it is only a means to human excellence and happiness. So if the tradeoff were really as simple as amoral freedom versus the wellbeing of the nation, then this response would be entirely appropriate....snip...
It is not true that those who value the plethora of activities that make up human life are prioritizing selfishness over the real wellbeing of the nation. Exactly the contrary. Months of people’s lives are slipping away forever. It is those who dismiss that who devalue the human.
The jobs we have taken from tens of millions of our fellow citizens cannot simply be dismissed as amoral dollars and cents. They are sources of meaning and provision, arenas of excellence of profound moral worth—and especially valuable, one might add, to the less economically privileged, who are disproportionately suffering under our new rules.
The hundreds of thousands of small businesses that we are driving into the ground are not simply abstract “companies.” They represent the investment of the dreams and life work of millions of our fellow citizens. A class is not merely an instrument for increasing average worker productivity. It is a sacred activity—opening the mind to truth, crafting the character, unfolding the understanding.
The personal, face-to-face human interactions that we have cut off at the source are the very stuff of meaningful life. To respond that all of these activities can be moved online would be to engage in an exercise in self-delusion.Once again, I have to mention that Martin Luther was a profound thinker on things that the average priest did not at the time comprehend. In the middle ages, and it continues today in the Roman Catholic Church, the priesthood, the monks and the nuns, were considered to be above the laymen, spending their lives in contemplation of, and preparing for, the afterlife. They believed themselves more Holy than the unwashed masses. Remind you of anyone? One of Luther's great teachings was that everyone could be on equal footings with the highest priest by dedicating the work he does daily to Christ. So, if a baker, bake honestly, to the health of his customers and the betterment of society as a whole, he is doing God's work. Every vocation can be carried out in a similar manor. One can make money, even a lot of it, for it is not money that is the root of evil, but the LOVE of money. That is the sin.
But, if Martin Luther is correct, and I believe he is, then doing our jobs, day in and day out is an incredibly important part of living out a Christian life. It is just as important as attending church services, confessing sins and receiving communion. Our jobs, our businesses, our providing for ourselves and our families is part of what makes us human. But of course there is so much more to living a full and meaningful life, as Ashbach says. Music, art, poetry and literature, gathering together, feasts, and of course fasting. To quote Ecclesiastes, "to everything there is a season, and time for every purpose under heaven."
Besides all of that, however, there is also the human concern for the fact that everything we do, and everything we don't do contains risk.
All worthwhile activities always involve risk of death—to oneself and others. That is no excuse for assuming a fetal position and failing to live one’s life. Complete human beings will live in awareness and acceptance of their own and others’ mortality.
As the sense of panic caused by the unfamiliarity of the new virus passes away, the quality of much elite moral discourse over the past few weeks will hopefully be recognized for the embarrassment it is.Where is the vitality that led a young Jewish queen to say, “If I perish, I perish?” That led a mad German genius to say “You have given your life to your work and now your work has taken your life. Therefore I will bury you with my own hands”?For those unfamiliar, the reference to the Jewish princess is to the Book of Esther, Chapter 4, verse 16.
Please go read the whole article, because it is a balanced approach, not just to the current situation, but to everything. One thing I do to keep my serenity and my sanity, though I am far from perfect at it, is to repeat the Serenity prayer:
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change,
The courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
Because, in truth, the only thing I can change is me and my reactions.
In the end, though, we must live our lives. Live yours as fully as you can.
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