15 March 2020 (The Ides of March and All)
Part 1: A Homage
Today I start with remembering a wonderful teacher, Audrey Cooper. Every year on this fateful day for Gaius Julius Caesar she comes to the forefront of my mind. The words that follow are not Caesar's, but belong to Cicero.
O tempora, o mores! Senatus haec intellegit, Consul videt; hic tamen vivit. vivit? immo vero etiam in Senatum venit, fit publici consili particeps, notat et designat oculis ad caedem unum quemque nostrum!
O times! O morals! The Senate understands these things, the Consul sees them; yet this man still lives. He lives? Indeed, he even comes into the Senate, he takes part in public debate, he notes and marks out with his eyes each one of us for slaughter!
The First of the Orations Against Cataline
This was how day 1 of Latin III began for me in 1976. I was a mediocre Latin student at best, but what I learned in Latin class changed my life. Experiencing Latin gave me words, and power over words, I had never known before. And well as a lawyer words were my life. Thank you, Ms. Cooper.
Part 2: That’s Sick, That’s not Funny
I was talking to a friend who lives in God’s waiting room (Florida) last night. We talked about cancelling travel plans, what is going to happen to the supply chain and a great many things of the sort. One of his closing comments was that this might well change the date when Social Security would go insolvent, extending it out several years. Depending on how wide spread the swath of damage is, he very well may be right. It is a horrible calculation, but it is a calculation. This is what you get when you talk to agnostic numbers guys.
Part 3: Damn the Old
The above is a scene from East Lansing yesterday morning. The photo was taken in the morning in East Lansing, Michigan. East Lansing is the home of the Michigan State Universe, an institution of higher learning that has suspended all in person classes in favor of online learning opportunities. Things are a bit in flux right now as to getting the online stuff up and functional. This comes from the threads I am seeing on Facebook. As a result, students have a little time on their hands. Also, the weekend before St. Patrick’s Day is often a big drunk time here in college town USA. This weekend is the time for pre-predrinking for St. Paddy’s.
This photo showing people packed together, clearly not practicing social distancing outside a local bar. The image was forcefully discussed on Facebook. One statistic I saw, and I am not vouching for the truth of it, is that you have 1/100 of a percent chance to die from the coronavirus if you are in your twenties. I can just hear the wheels turning in those hormone addled minds, “I like those odds. I am going to the bar. Who knows maybe the threat of the plague will get me laid”. I was a student once; I understand the mindset.
The people responding to the post were older and pretty emphatic about how this gathering was ill advised, wrong and an affront to the ideals of the common good. These were people closer to the part of the population where 3-5% of the population may die of the virus. The posters stated the bar owners had a responsibility to the community not to let this happen. They also indicated that the local governments had a role in stopping it. Someone near and dear to me said, “Well okay, nothing is going to happen to you kid, but what happens when you hug your grandmother?” Yeah, the tagline for coronavirus is, “When you ignore social distancing, the person you touch is touching everyone and everything you have touched since you last washed off with anti-viral cleansing products.”
We live in a system governed by capitalism. Bar owners owe no allegiance to anything other than the bottom line. I am not making a moral judgment here; it is simply a fact. Bars will not respond to appeals to social welfare unless there is an economic impetus to do so. A threat of boycotts might work. Being fined by the city for not enforcing the ban of gatherings of over 250 people might be a motivator. But simply saying don’t allow this to happen for the welfare of the older citizens of this city and state, that is not going to motivate changed behaviors.
The city does not know what to do. For all of its disaster planning you can see the wheels of government are struggling. We know from the science that not transmitting the disease is the way to keep our medical system from failing. But we are so used to norms of unfettered freedom and individual rights, elected officials struggle to come up with ways to tell people to stay the hell inside and away from other people. Microbes don’t give a hoot about constitutions, but people do. Sometimes, and it is very rare, your individual rights must be sacrificed for the common good.
There was one contrarian voice among the postings. It appeared to be from a young woman who posed the question, “Why should we change our behavior when the change only benefits you the old? And you the old are leaving us with a world that may not be survivable due to pollution and global warming. And you the old are doing nothing about those things that will kill us the young in the long run,” This is not a direct quote buy my remembering of it. I searched today but could not find it. Clearly, there was an implied argument in the post that the old should die off so that the young can make the changes needed to save the world.
The writer posed a question of true moral philosophy. Why should I act in a moral way that benefits you, when you will not act in a moral way that benefits us all? My response is this, we all owe a duty to each to behave in a way that promotes the betterment of life. Many faiths have a creed similar to that voiced in the Christian bible, do unto others what you would have them do to you. The whole goal of this life, while we are in this life is to make things better, not worse. Packing together in a bar line is so clearly a way to transmit the disease it cannot be found to be a moral act. Standing in that line for minutes or hours is making things worse.
Ancillary to this is the argument is another that must be considered. Not all the old have continued laying waste to the world. Many have fought for years to stop the pollution and the desecration of the planet. The coronavirus is not something that discriminates against those who are working for good and those who are not. Thus, my young friend you will be injuring or killing allies who have experience and knowledge you need, as well as those active defilers of the earth if such behaviors persist.
Finally, I offer that I came from a generation that wanted mass change, and we marched, and boycotted and wrote letters to try and bring it about. Some change occurred, I note the Clean Air and the Clean Water Acts. But as we aged some lost that vision. Some grew complacent. Some just got bogged down in day to day living, inclusive of the bearing and raising of you the voice of the young. There is nothing in history that evens hints that your generation will not suffer the same fate. So, offing us by intemperate social behavior on your part does not guarantee you stop the apocalypse or create your new Eden.
I hope you make the decision to behave appropriately. You may only get mild symptoms, but that hug you give your mom or dad while wearing the coat you wore in line as you waited for the bar to open, may change your life and your world forever. We all owe each other a duty to work for the best possible outcomes.
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