What is Wrong with Us?
Is our Red-Blue Poisoning More Lethal than Covid 19?
It affects the eyes first — red and blue capillaries bleed across the whites, blurring vision. And then the mouth — filling with a red-blue phlegm which garbles the speech. But it affects the way we read too:
A wise and timely op-ed on the Coronavirus, How Cowardice and Class Privilege Divide Support for Coronavirus Lockdowns, published this week in The Federalist, becomes a slab of meat attracting a viral trail of over 600 petty and vindictive comments — now 700 — within the first few days of publication—all red vs blue — which won’t stop until the editor decides to shut it down.
It's not a pretty sight. Jonathan Ashbach’s article was published in a right-wing journal, with a decidedly libertarian slant, yet it was free of any partisan insults. But only a tiny percentage of “readers” seemed to have even bothered reading his article. The vast majority were simply hurling anti- red and blue filth at their fellow respondents, starting with two particularly toxic anti-blue diatribes:
Of course the demwits must save every child’s life from Covid. After killing most of their children in utero, they just don’t have that many left to spare.
Hey now… abortion is ‘essential’… (so are liquor stores and weed stores… state taxes you know), but church is NOT essential….
This followed by a string of anti-red poison:
The great unwashed Trumptards who have no savings, who live risky lives, who shoot their own eyes out with their guns, who are now mad at the rest of us who DID prepare and want to force everyone back to work, so they don’t suffer.
I saw a lot of nazi and confederate flags. I think it is telling that these Trumptards fly the flags of two nations REAL AMERICANS defeated.
I felt ill. A respectful op-ed had triggered a red vs. blue hatefest within hours of publication— something I don’t believe the author ever intended. Without a doubt it is a wise article.
And Yet
I do believe Ashbach has misapplied this wisdom to the Corona crisis. And this may be one reason it triggered such vile partisan responses. Its message, critiquing our obsession with safety, is seen on the right as a timely rebuke to leftist “elites” who preach the necessity of a Shutdown while “sucking from the teats of Big Government.” For the working class red, struggling to keep his small business alive, this “elitist” Shutdown smacks of “let them eat cake!”
There really is an economic divide between red and blue is this country — and a shutdown feels very different depending on which side of this divide you live on. And if your livelihood is threatened, the last thing you want to hear about is the High-falutin’ Country of Post-Corona. Get out of here!
Yet removed from its Corona context, Ashbach’s message is one we all desperately need to hear: “Is it supposed to be reassuring,” he rhetorically asks, “when various establishments inform me that ‘Your safety is our first concern.’ Dear heaven above, I hope not! Excellence? Virtue? Yes. Development as a complete human being? Sure. But safety? Our first concern?’”
Indeed! If safety were always #1 priority, we would be living small and pitiable lives. If there is a God, he clearly does not prioritize our safety — gods have seldom been safe. As Mr. Badger in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe retorted when asked if Aslan was safe: “Safe? Who said anything about safe? Of course he’s not safe! He’s a lion. But he’s Good I tell you.”
Can we agree that safety is horribly overrated in our contemporary culture? We are terribly afraid of every possible way of dying, rather than yearning for the chance, as our ancient ancestors did, of going out with honor on some battlefield, or giving up our lives for some great cause — rather than dying comfortably sedated in an old-age home.
And yet, as stated, I believe Ashbach’s libertarian wisdom may not apply in this strange case. In the Corona age, my duty is now your safety. And I have no right to simply return to work, salvage my company, or go to church, if it endangers your life. And we can debate whether or not it really does. We can continue to go tribal on this — -blue vs red — but until we know for sure, I think we are obligated to respect the fact that there appears to be a measure of consensus amongst pandemic experts: our best chance of averting tens of millions of deaths may be to simply stop. At least for a while. Even though we may never know if sacrificing our liberties made any difference. And let the red and blue dogs lie.
