Since March 2020, we have been subjected to an endless series of mandates and prohibitions. Businesses were ordered to close. We weren’t allowed to have large gatherings, even in our own homes. Some states—such as Texas and Florida—have prohibited private businesses from requiring their employees to be vaccinated. Biden has proposed a law to require employees at companies with more than one-hundred workers to be vaccinated or tested weekly. All of this has been done under the banner of “public health.”
Consider what eighteen months of dictates has done. Those orders and restrictions certainly haven’t stopped the spread of COVID-19. But they have destroyed countless businesses, and in the process, erased the dreams and aspirations of the individuals who wanted to make their lives better. They have thrown millions of individuals out of work, putting many renters in the position of being unable to pay their rent. They have forced individuals to dip into their savings simply to sustain themselves.
Millions of individuals have been harmed by the dictates, some perhaps irreparably. Government officials have discarded the lives of individuals in the name of “public health.”
When the group—including “the public”—serves as the standard of value, individuals are irrelevant. Individuals are merely fodder to serve the interests of the group. And that is what is happening under the banner of “public health.”
Government officials have repeatedly told us that their prohibitions and mandates will save lives. It is a gross contradiction to destroy lives under the guise of saving lives. Nobody can point with certainty to the individuals who have been saved by the dictates. But we can point with certainty to the millions of individuals whose lives have been ruined.
The purpose of life is not the avoidance of death. The purpose of life is to pursue the values that will bring us joy and happiness. The purpose of life is to live. The government’s response to the pandemic has greatly restricted our ability to pursue values. In protecting the “public health,” government has made it dramatically more difficult for individuals to live.