The Golden Rule Is Dying of Covid-19
How the spirit of shared sacrifice present as the pandemic began has shattered into a clash of irreconcilable moral traditions.
Isaiah Berlin would have seen this coming.
Photographer: Sophie Bassouls/SygmaAs the coronavirus forced the western world into lockdown in March, humans were confronted with a moral test. Drawing on centuries of philosophical thought that produced the world’s competing modern value systems, each person had to decide which measures were justified to limit the medical and economic carnage. There was plenty of possibility for discord.
Initially, people and leaders coalesced around a version of the biblical philosophy of the “golden rule” — that we should not do to others what we wouldn’t want done to ourselves. That was the basis for asking everyone to make personal and economic sacrifices to limit the death and suffering of the weakest and oldest. Governments of the left and the right made that choice, strongly supported by religious leaders up to and including the Pope.