Who would have thought that COVID-19 can teach us whether we are socialists? That nasty word that many use interchangeably with communist (historically socialists and communists loathed each other) means someone who wants government interference in everything. If a huge nanny government interferes in daily matters, the theory is that no freedom would remain. If a governor decides to tell us that we have to wear bothersome masks or stay an unfriendly six feet from others, he or she is a socialist. Why can I not be able to decide about masks or social distancing?
People in Texas and Mississippi had their governors declare no more cumbersome limits on freedom recently and, to no one’s surprise, they saw an uptick in deadly infections. Of course, fearsome winter storms brought disaster to Texans who had opted to use an electric bill plan that would draw from their accounts automatically when emergency weather conditions availed. Then life-long conservatives who wanted nothing to do with socialism shouted for government intervention against the utility companies, socking people $16,000 for three or four days of normal use of power.
So it comes down to what government services we want at tax-payer expense and what ones we don’t. That is often decided by who is demanding the services. Are the poor calling for better police protection or the rich for COVID-19 inoculation shots gotten illegitimately from ghetto districts far from their neighborhoods? In this case, are the poor or the rich the socialists?
Church social doctrine teaches that the common good should direct where the community’s money goes. This notion is usually unheard of in the discussion in our wealthy country. Common good? It sounds close to communism. Each tax bracket wants its own needs satisfied before anyone else’s are. People of all means are accustomed to believe that since money talks, those with most of it get the first say. That being the case, those with most of it claim as their own the right to vaccine even if it means going outside government specified eligibility. Church doctrine is anti-capitalist when it reminds us that the rich do not have a prior right to community goods or services. And that goes a long way to explain why proponents of social doctrine are not welcome to the discussion.
We have heard all of this before. But have we listened? Anthropologists tell us that eons ago humans lived nasty, brutish and short lives in caves, separating from each other so that our tribe would get what scanty resources there were to eat before the slightly different people from the other side of the river got them first. Tribalism is wired into our DNA. We see nothing wrong with it. Would you want your daughter to marry one of “them”?
While tribalism has long been a part of human thinking, must we allow it to overturn our Christian responsibility to our brother whose keeper we are, or our sister as well? Remember Jesus and what he said about love of neighbor? He supported a school of economics different from that of most of us.
We are still in our caves, imagining that there is not enough to go around. So the instinct kicks in to grab and hoard when idealistic economists say that an economy of sharing is not only possible but profitable. It would be good to mention here that our federal government for decades has allotted two thirds of all discretionary budget money to Defense. No other country comes near that. In fact, our military is larger and mightier than that of the next five largest nations combined. But our tribalism sees to it that we arm ourselves to the teeth, consoling ourselves that our militarism at least makes jobs when the opposite is true: money for social needs like schools, hospitals, roads, bridges and medicines like vaccines makes many more jobs than ever more expensive defense gadgetry.
The contagion from which we beg God to relieve us should awaken us to a new and better way of thinking. Something good can still come out of what has been so evil. A new concern for others can have a chance if we recognize where our primitive anthropology and economics have gotten us. Government can do much to make this happen if we make it. If American voters vote with their consciences, nobody would have to worry about being called a socialist. And most people would be better served.
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