Lest you were concerned that the COVID-19 – and rest assured your home-bound author is more than a little tired of writing on the topic – had not stirred up the crazies, here’s one that made me laugh.
Put simply: Only an irresponsible sentimentalist imagines we can live in a world without triage. We must never do evil that good might come. On this point St. Paul is clear. But we often must decide which good we can and should do, a decision that nearly always requires not doing another good, not binding a different wound, not saving a different life.
There is a demonic side to the sentimentalism of saving lives at any cost. Satan rules a kingdom in which the ultimate power of death is announced morning, noon, and night. But Satan cannot rule directly. God alone has the power of life and death, and thus Satan can only rule indirectly. He must rely on our fear of death.
In our simple-minded picture of things, we imagine a powerful fear of death arises because of the brutal deeds of cruel dictators and bloodthirsty executioners. But in truth, Satan prefers sentimental humanists. We resent the hard boot of oppression on our necks, and given a chance, most will resist. How much better, therefore, to spread fear of death under moralistic pretexts.
This is what is happening in New York as I write. The media maintain a drumbeat of warnings. And the message is not just that you or I might end up in an overloaded emergency room gasping for air. We are more often reminded that we can communicate the virus to others and cause their deaths. [‘SAY “NO” TO DEATH’S DOMINION,’ R. R. Reno, First Things]
I particularly liked this paragraph:
We, by contrast, are collectively required to cower in fear—fear that we’ll die redoubled by the fear that we’ll cause others to die. We are stripped of whatever courage we might be capable of. Were I to host a small dinner party tonight, wanting to resist the paranoia and hysteria, I would be denounced. Yesterday, Governor Cuomo saw young people playing basketball in a New York City park. “It has to stop and it has to stop now,” he commanded. Everyone must live under death’s dominion.
Yes, I’ve been stripped of the courage to cause someone else’s death – if I were to be infected but not yet showing symptoms myself.
I’ll tell you what, this guy has mastered writing a literary line, but not how to think. I shan’t speculate why, as long time readers will already know my thoughts on the matter.
But my source for this rampage about accepting what God is inflicting on us, the indefatigable Erick Erickson (yes, he’s still sending me mail), pops this dude’s pretensions better than I:
Sounds fine until you realize he is advocating death for about a million people just so he can get back to the office. That’s the thing all these preening jackasses who hate being stuck with their families are missing on this. And you’ll have to forgive me, but I put the ignorance as intelligence columnists in the category of rank jackassery here. …
Look, if you want to go back to work and claim we need to get on with our lives, please go first to your local hospital and talk to the doctors and nurses who are seeing first hand what’s happening. But this rank jackassery with a healthy dose of contrarianism where you pretend it is demonic to stop the spread of a virus is just a bit too much for me.
Yes, the cure should not be worse than the disease. But the cure is sitting on your couch, so shut the hell up.
It’s almost worth the mail for that nice take down. But the cure is sitting on your couch, so shut the hell up. Very nice. I might even give that a standing-O at a public discussion.
And then ask him why he embraces President “16,000 lies and counting” Trump. I’m such an ass in my fantasies.
