The unvaccinated should live by the Golden Rule – Maryville Daily Times

James Madison observed that if men were angels we would have no need of government." Today he might say if people voluntarily got vaccinated, there would be no need for mandates.

I have been astonished and dismayed by the organized resistance to vaccination a proven way of controlling and possibly defeating a virus that has killed more than 700,000 Americans. Tennessee is rewarding people who refuse the vaccine by ensuring eligibility for unemployment benefits if they lose their jobs.

Are we becoming too stupid and selfish to govern ourselves? Throughout history, humans have struggled to define how people should live together. Most religions have promoted treating others as we would like to be treated. In the 18th century, philosopher Immanuel Kant expanded on the Golden Rule in his universal ethical principle: A person should act according to rules that could hold for everyone. By this standard you should refuse the vaccine only if you wish all other rational people to also refuse the vaccine.

If you exempt yourself from vaccination, then you are a free rider, expecting others to bear the burden of fighting the virus. It is a grave mistake when we elevate individual preferences above the welfare of the whole in a public health crisis.

We are not as rational as we like to think. We value gun ownership more than peace and public safety, Loyalty to a political party, regardless of the corruption and damage inflicted by party leaders, is irrational tribalism. Current tribalism has one party rooting for the downfall of the other, even if it means virus mutations continue to kill people and hurt the economy.

We could be better than this. There is a universal principle of love and kindness to which we can give support and promote or reject and ignore to our peril. Religion calls us to love our neighbor as ourselves and the American ideal of equality is still a beacon toward justice in government. Both require the better angels of our nature," so that we can work for the good of humanity instead of self-promotion.

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The unvaccinated should live by the Golden Rule - Maryville Daily Times