self preservation versus the utilitarian

"As for my little family, having thus, as I have said, laid in a store of bread, butter, cheese, and beer, I took my friend and physician's advice, and locked myself up, and my family, and resolved to suffer the hardship of living a few months without flesh-meat, rather than to purchase it at the hazard of our lives." daniel defoe. a journal of the plague year.

daniel's protagonist ( a saddler by trade incidentally ) "laid in a store of bread, butter, cheese, and beer" and practiced "social distancing"...he also discussed the fact that shops were "thinly supplied"...goods were scarce and there were many who could not find basics...something of an ethical dilemma...the current pandemic has a full pallet of ethical dilemmas based on the very human trait of self-preservation versus the ethical postulate of utilitarianism "the greatest good for the greatest number" and it has implications for the seemingly mundane to the overtly political...

it is becoming clear that the medical establishment has been something less than forthcoming about the effectiveness of surgical masks as they ask us to donate any we might possess to local hospitals...admittedly nurses and doctors are coming into contact with this virus on a scale much larger than someone going out to hoard toilet paper...they are clearly at greater risk and deserve to be protected as much as is possible...their self-preservation is as important as that of anyone else...but does it take precedence? the utilitarian argument would probably be that yes it does because they are in a position to do greater good for more people than toilet paper hoarders are...the good of the many is more important than the good of the few...so donate your masks...this, of course, may endanger the hoarders...but who cares? they are a distinct minority and their ethos is questionable...

i am supposed to stay at home...that the stay at home order has so many loopholes in it that staying home is mostly voluntary and that the governor had waffled on extending it ( to the best of my knowledge ) through the month of april is of no real importance...the idea is i am supposed to stay home for the greater good unless i need a pizza...personal restrictions for the greater good...well..okay...take out food is not a priority for me anyway...still if i find i need necessities i can go and, at least , try to procure them...i am not locked in...

looking around it seems that quite a few people are locked in and out over this simultaneously and here is where the whole utilitarian "greatest good" starts to come unglued...whose greater good? rohingyas or don trump"s? syrians or elon musk's? this is where benthamite utilitarianism becomes a political weapon for wealth and power..."the good of the people" becomes an excuse for closing borders to any "other" that might not fit your cultural norms and the very human trait of self preservation clouds the issue and entrenches the elite status quo who are using one instinct in the polity to override another which is empathy with suffering and an inclination to relieve it where possible...

there are some ugly subtexts to this and human emotions are fairly easy to manipulate if you put people in circumstances that allow them to control your frame of reference...got surgical masks? wear them if you feel the need...especially if you are feeling a bit fragile...you have an obligation to protect others as well as yourself.