Protecting My Nose

There is an old aphorism that says, “your freedom to waive your arm ends where my nose begins.” This piece of wisdom is particularly applicable to the morons who insist that their arms can remain unvaccinated.

If these empty cranial vessels posing as humans continue to waive their mistaken sense of freedom around at the rest of us, none of our noses are safe.

Although science tells us that fully vaccinated people have only a slight chance of becoming very sick, the dangers from the unvaccinated go far beyond that. When they get sick, they usurp the medical resources that could be used to save others; they force insurance companies to expend funds that then cause other worthy claims to be denied; they leave their families with short term and long-term emotional difficulties and, often, financial hardship. And, of course, they walk among us as moving open hoses of virus that inevitably transfer their curse to different imbeciles who will then just repeat the cycle.

I would not be surprised if many of these “freedom lovers” (not all, but many) are the same people who deny others an abortion, or who don’t want to allow people to privately smoke a little weed, or who try to ban consenting adults from marrying if they happen to be of the same sex. Some “freedom lovers” they are.

Please forgive this superficial overview of PolySci 101, but what we face  here is just another chapter in the age-old debate about what it takes to live effectively in a community. It goes back to the concept of the “state of nature” originated by a Chinese philosopher named, “Mozi” in the third century B.C. “What was it like,” he asked, “before there was any notion of community?”  Not very good, was his answer. Thomas Hobbes developed this idea further by famously describing the state of nature as “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” After that, he apparently ran out of adjectives. His conclusion was that governments needed to be created by “mutual contracts” among the people in order to allow us to live together in some version of harmony.

Thomas Hobbes, and probably even Mozi, would be sickened by those who refuse to be vaccinated.  Those boneheads are throwbacks to the “state of nature” where freedom meant doing whatever you want regardless of the consequences for others. 

In keeping with the original theme of this blog – “We Were Right” – it might be time to remember what we used to sing in the sixties:

“C’mon people, smile on your brother, everybody get together, try to love one another right now.”