Coronvirus Lockdown Remorse

To reopen or not to reopen - that is the media question of the day.

Already doubt is setting into the minds of those taking swift lockdown measures.   It's like "Coronavirus lockdown remorse" - as cabin fever sets in and economic malaise appears on retirement savings statements.  The DNA of the USA is our risk taking entrepreneurs and they (like me) have the temptation to measure the costs and benefits of this crisis.  Then using the utilitarian philosophical model of the greatest good as measured in total utility we can make the logical Spock like decision.   But how does this apply in human life. 

Spock in his final exchange with Captain Kirk gasps  "The needs of the many......" and Kirk finishes for him "outweigh the needs of the few". 

How appropriate that J.P. and I on Saturday re-watched Michael Sandel's  first four lectures from his book "Justice - What's the Right Thing to Do?"

You can add to this philosophical debate the attempt to allocate money to those in pain and you can see why Congress can't agree on a stimulus package.  Re-read the quote as you reflect on OPEC's fight about production of oil allocated among the Saudis and Russians. Measuring utility will always create disagreements.   

How appropriate that my Bible devotional today was Matthew 16:26  "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?  Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?"

What happens when you reverse the quote -  "The needs of the few, outweigh the needs of the many" - suddenly you enter the world of human rights - the very soul that God created.  There is no measurement of human life or the soul - it is infinite. Nothing finite can be given for something of infinite value.

When worldly crisis and suffering tests our resolve - it is the mathematics of the many weighed against the few that will measure our humanity - and determine the return for our soul.