Why we should foreground our commitment to the common good in the fight against coronavirus.
Social distancing is inconvenient at best, truly burdensome at worst. What hasn’t helped matters is the confusing messaging of why we should social distance at all. We’ve been conditioned to think social distancing is only about us — lowering the risk to one’s self and one’s family. And yet we’ve also been told that this is something we need to do to protect others.
While not necessarily incorrect, both ways of thinking about it are not equal to the task before us. What we need is an exhortation to act that is grounded firmly in an ethical foundation, one that not only gets at the deeper purpose of social distancing, but that also lays the groundwork for a more resilient society on the other side of this crisis. We as a global society need to see social distancing as nothing less than an act of solidarity, an intentional choice that binds us in a common cause.
Some U.S. leaders have started making this rhetorical shift. In one of his daily press briefings on the coronavirus, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) leaned into the message: “We are united, and when you are united there is nothing you can’t do…”
To read the entire article from Vox, click https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/4/9/21213425/coronavirus-covid-19-social-distancing-solidarity-ethics
