Individual vs. Communitarian Rights: Lessons from the Coronavirus
Originally posted March 23, 2020
Written by Rahul Varma
As the fear of coronavirus spreads, authorities recommend social distancing and washing of hands as a precaution against this virus. These good instructions are given to assure our individual safety and wellbeing. However, individual safety is not enough. One must think of the welfare of the entire community. Pursuance of personal safety and self-interest is good only if it ensures the same for the rest of the community.
The Coronavirus pandemic makes me reflect deeply that self-interest and individual rights are good only if aligned with communitarian interests and collective rights. The threat of Coronavirus presents us with an opportunity to realize that we live together and depend on each other. Therefore, we have a duty to each other.
Yet at a time like the present, we have to think about the sufficiency of liberal democracies’ commitment to individual rights. Most democratic countries of the world believe that all human beings have rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Liberal democracies claim to abide by the ideals of civil rights, free enterprise and equal distribution of resources.
Yet the American idea of liberalism focusing on individual rights continues to override the communitarianism idea that ensures individual as well as collective rights. Successive US presidencies, particularly, Donald Trump, a non-intellectual and the vile president of America doesn’t even come remotely close to collective interests. He mobilizes America by his personal brand of solipsism called America First. Similarly, the present rulers of India bent on building a Hindu nation to serve self-interests of extremist Hindus, ignoring that India is a nation of the many.
Times like this remind us that individual rights are not a sufficient foundation on which to build the entire society, for a society is more than just a collection of individuals. This crisis makes it all too clear that pursuing self-interest is not enough; we have to think about the welfare of others and the entire society.
It is a time to challenge the Darwinian idea of ‘survival of the fittest’ for the fit cannot survive without the support of the rest.
© Rahul Varma
