“There are those who still think they are holding the pass against a revolution that may be coming up the road.  But they are gazing in the wrong direction.  The revolution is behind them.  It went by in the Night of Depression, singing songs to freedom.”  Garet Garrett (The Revolution Was)

One aspect of the coronavirus debacle has not been discussed very much.  That aspect is its political aspect – political, as in the philosophy of politics, the study of justice.  There is a reason for the pundit’s lack of discussion:  there is no justification for our government’s actions this side of Marx and others who classify man as the property of the state.

The political philosophy undergirding western civilization sees every individual as important, as having dignity, as having a right to life and the right to take the actions necessary to sustain that life.  That was understood as the meaning of the sixth and eighth commandments.  Over centuries of struggle, political theory and practice realized the truth that the right to life and property resulted in freedom and prosperity.  Only under freedom could a person realize the opportunity to live a life of dignity and productivity.

That freedom was won by stripping the government of its power over people’s lives, denying it the right to intervene between people engaged in non-coercive actions with each other.  Following the Bible’s mandate, government’s function became one of wielding the sword against those initiating force against others.  Government, functioning under the purview of justice, was established to protect its citizens from aggression and oppression.

The “Left” (i.e. statists of all ilks) never accepted that understanding of the government’s role.  From Hegel and Marx’s intellectual dissent to the anti-clergy of the French Revolution to the “conservatism” of Bismarck and the American Progressives, the power hungry and greedy fought back.  In America, by one small (usually) step after another, the idea was propagated that power wielded by the state was the necessary and acceptable way of achieving social goals.  Following Hegel, the state became seen as “God walking on earth,” and power, not liberty, became the watchword of political thought and actions.

That giving power to the state destroyed the dignity of the individual and would lead to a new servitude, a serfdom as Hayek called it, was kept hidden under a veneration of nationalism and a blind following of the slogans of freedom.  Generations of students were taught to denigrate the old ideal of “small government,” and to accept without question the idea that people’s lives must be controlled by the scientific elite.

That government has the authority to take whatever actions are deemed necessary whenever a crisis can be found or generated is now considered as sacrosanct as the commandments written in stone used to be.  That the Constitution and Bill of Rights are relevant to the issues is considered quaint, at best.

Government’s response to the coronavirus has been a brazen application of total control, an extreme response of current political theory.  The lockdown of people’s movements and economic activities is based solely on “potential,” on statistical probability, that somebody who comes in contact with the virus will become ill and carry it to others.  Kentucky was taking license plate numbers of people “attending church” while sitting in their cars; officials claimed it was “the only way that we can ensure that your decision doesn’t kill somebody else.” Dr. Fauci added a new dimension to positive medicine by admitting the government is contemplating giving clean bill of health certificates (“government-issued immunity cards” was his terminology) to people, which would become a necessity for air travel.  A “contact-tracing program” which would monitor where people went and who they saw is also being explored. Pennsylvania declared protestors’ freedom of assembly was ok as long as they stayed in their cars!

But I deny the government has the authority to dictate the many actions it has already taken.  I deny it has the authority to take the additional actions currently being discussed.  Yes, it has the power:  the police, who once swore to uphold justice, have obediently followed orders to impose draconian edicts based on executive orders.  Governors have taken on themselves the role of dictator, but people deny the result is a Police State.

For many years, quarantine has been considered one of the Police Powers granted to the state.  As far back as Bible times, quarantine was considered the means to protect society from deadly contagious diseases.  But the quarantine was based on the actuality of having the disease, not just a statistical possibility; a person showed himself to the priest, and only after the priest examined him and determined the presence of the disease was he isolated.  The current practice is an arbitrary edict having more in common with house arrest than quarantine.

There is no basis in justice for denying a person the right to work.  The destruction of the hopes, dreams and livelihoods of millions of people is unconscionable and unethical.  Practically, the results are sure to be misery for many, and a widening of the gap between the haves and the have-nots, with all its social implications.  Between businesses being forced into bankruptcy, and the $2+trillion dollar stimulus and additional trillions in monetary QE, the economic response will destroy the quality of life for millions of people before it all plays out.

And worse, modern political theory bestows on the government total control of our lives.  The governor now decides what actions you can take (outside your home), who you can see or interact with and under what conditions, and even the purpose for which you may leave the house.  Such injustices are reminiscent of martial law or third-world dictatorships, not the land of the free.

As mentioned in a previous blog article, the government is acting as if protecting people from an illness is the ultimate priority.  That is wrong, terribly wrong.  The ultimate trump card (no pun intended) in the game of politics is not safety, but freedom.  It is freedom, not paternalism, which allows the dignity and worth of an individual to be realized.  It is freedom, not force, which is conducive to life.  Freedom, such as enshrined in the Bill of Rights, must never be abrogated.

I am saddened for my country – indeed, for the world – that we have come full-circle back to an individual being considered just another serf to be ordered around by the elite at the top of the political hierarchy.  But that is the mindset of most of America today.  And it is wrong!

Utilitarianism is the philosophical theory that the moral worth of an action can be determined by a mathematical calculation.  The ‘good’ is to be determined by a “hedonic calculus” that rates pleasures and pains and decides which is predominant.  In Jeremy Bentham’s classic statement, “”it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong.”

One of its major shortcomings was that no one could develop a calculus to measure the implicit ‘utils’ of an action, and therefore, it offered no way to compare Action A to Action B.  Today, we tend to laugh at the stupidity of trying to measure an emotion or utility of an action.  But perhaps we protest too quickly.  Isn’t this the unstated basis of Washington and most state governors’ emergency decrees today?  We are told that government officials are balancing deaths from covid-19 against the untold sufferings of millions caused by the ‘stay at home’ and ‘close down’ executive orders.  Increased suicide deaths, increased abuse of children and spouses, wiped out life savings, wiped out hope pale in comparison to the deaths that may occur from the disease.  Few officials or pundits point out the unforeseen consequences of their edicts, because it is assumed without discussion that saving an unstated number of deaths overrides all considerations.

Lest we forget, wealth/money/finances are important!  They represent our means to do life.  For some, it represents their ability to achieve dreams; for others (perhaps of lessor means), it may be the ability to feed the kids or get necessary medical care. The wealth so casually thrown away by forcing shutdowns and unemployment equates to diminished life for many, perhaps for many years.  Nor does the fact the deaths may happen more slowly and be hidden by poverty and systemic problems obviate the truth.

Just as important is the government’s power grab taking place under cover of the pandemic.  The analogy of war is appropriate.  War has always been “the health of the state.”  Historically, war has led to a curtailment of civil liberties, even incarceration for non-crimes, or loss of freedom of the press.   It has also been associated with “wartime socialism,” the historian’s name for America’s version of a command economy.  After the war, freedoms are often restored – but not all. The elite loves this centralization, has eagerly embraced it, even though every country that has accepted it fully has become a living hell.  And even when not fully embraced, to the extent it has been adopted, the quality of life and economic well-being of the masses has suffered.

Yet such understanding is absent from our leaders in Washington and the media.  The media quotes Dr. Fauci approvingly.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said he doesn’t know why the United States hasn’t instituted a nationwide stay-at-home order amid the spread of COVID-19, saying the country “really should be” doing so to protect American lives.

 “I don’t understand why that’s not happening,” Fauci, one of the leading scientific voices behind the country’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, told CNN on Thursday. “The tension between federally mandated versus states’ rights to do what they want is something I don’t want to get into. But if you look at what is going on in this country, I do not understand why we are not doing that. We really should be.”

Many people have suffered and died for the safeguards to freedom he so cavalierly dismisses.  His focus on one thing – the number of people with the virus – dismisses the essence of our country without a second glance.  (Expertise in one field does not necessarily carry over to another!)  His blindness to the ‘people affects’ of government control of a society and economy cannot allow us as a people to throw away the freedoms our country was founded on.  The horrors of the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, Zimbabwe, and Venezuela (and others) are worse by far than the covid-19 effects on Italy, Spain, and New York City.

You see, there is no mathematical calculus that can tell us if an enforced economic shutdown combined with enforced “social distancing” is better or worse than a voluntary, self-government response.  It is not a question of pain on one hand and death on the other.  There will be horror on both sides, regardless of our response.  It’s not a question of calculus, but of ethics.  Ethics, of necessity, includes such concepts as justice, freedom, and the quality of life.  That discussion is sadly missing in almost every article and analysis I’ve seen of our current situation.  It is unbelievably sad, and does not augur well for our future.

It is time for Washington and Harrisburg (or whatever the state) to stop playing god and limit themselves to the job they were assigned to!

(Quote from:  https://frontier.yahoo.com/huffpost/dr-anthony-fauci-stay-at-home-orders-040921847.html)

Sometimes it takes an extreme situation to open our eyes to what’s before us every day.  The covid-19 panic is one of those events.

Did you notice the response by government (both state and national) to the illness?  Most responses fall under one of two types.  One type of response – the one government is ‘good’ at – are the orders to “social distance” oneself, to close down businesses and gatherings.  The orders are blanket orders, affecting everyone in a large geographical area, regardless of their circumstances.  The “heavy hand of government” takes on its full meaning here.

The second type of response is a more rational response.  Dozens of government regulations hindering the medical profession and a free market response have been rescinded, at least for a while.  Permissions have been granted to do everything from increase the number of ICU hospital beds (!), to emulate Italy’s move of using “split” ventilators, to allow use of a tried-and-true, tested medicine for malaria to be tried against covid-19.  Others are just as infuriating – the FDA loosened regulations on the development of test kits (after medical professionals were screaming out the need), allowing licensed health care professionals to work in other states, to loosening laws hindering the utilization of teledoc services.  The states followed suite; Pennsylvania, for example, now allows a doctor to “be affiliated with” more than two hospitals, allows retired health care professionals to lend a hand during the crisis without renewing their license, and many other similar loosenings of the restrictions on the free market.

For many years, libertarians have pointed out the best thing government can do – in an emergency or daily life – is to get out of the way, remove the laws and regulations that bind and hinder people’s (non-force initiating) actions.  Covid-19 makes it obvious to anyone with open eyes.

For many years, our country has been having a debate about “socialized” versus “market” medicine.  Our current situation shows there is no “market” medical system in America.  The debate, really, is between nationalized and socialized medicine; socialized medicine is a fait accompli, the current norm.

Socialized medicine, of course, is a necessity for a government that has abrogated the prerogatives of God to itself.  For many years now, politicians and most of the population have looked to government to save them from whatever ills are besetting.  Whether a natural disaster such as a hurricane or virus, or a health care crisis, or an economic downturn, people’s eyes and expectations turn to Washington for relief and salvation.

I’m afraid we’ll find out that, in this area also, Washington is the god that fails!