Service

 

I heard an interesting and resonant expression yesterday on NPR. The expression was “We should work in service to one another for a better world”. And indeed, if we kept in mind at all times that we are a society, as opposed to a group of individuals, I do believe we’d have a better world.

What do we owe one another? That is an interesting and integral question. I was raised and educated to believe that my life is all about service to others, and while it took some time, some maturity, some loss, and some suffering to lend some heft to that belief, I believe I have probably done a passable job of adhering to that moral imperative.

We live in a society that places a strong emphasis on individual rights as opposed to the good of society, and often those two concepts end up in stark conflict. Just where is the line between an individual’s right to live as she wishes, and what is good for society in general?

We find ourselves dealing with a public health crisis of epic proportion, wherein the economy has been devastated, peoples’ lives have been upended, and what social fabric we had has been shredded. There are those who, when asked to wear a mask, reply “My body, my choice”. Leaving the ugly politics of mask-wearing aside for a moment, the response, “My body, my choice” is absurd on its face. It may well be your body, but unless you lead the life of a complete recluse, never coming into contact with other people, it is not just your body. By failing to wear a mask in public, you potentially expose others to the virus.

There is a line between individual rights and the common good. Where that line is drawn varies depending on what segment of society we are looking at: Urban and rural, religious and secular, liberal and conservative. We must, as a society, be willing to move that line when necessary. We must sometimes be willing to sacrifice temporarily an individual right in favor of the common good. A public health crisis is a perfect example. And that is precisely where service to one another comes into play. In the context of the current public health crisis, yes, wearing a mask and practicing social distancing are an inconvenience. But consider the cost of NOT doing these things. We may unwittingly spread the disease. We may unwittingly bring it home and infect members of our own family. The cost is fairly high. We owe one another the service of helping to protect others (as well as ourselves) from the disease. The cost of not doing so is potentially much greater than doing so.

We are in the midst of the greatest public health crisis in the past 100 years. If we fail to act in service to one another in order to defeat the pandemic, it thus becomes easier and easier to ignore our obligations to one another. The result will be a ‘death spiral’ of our society.

MPC 02-10-2021

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