[OPINION] The place of philosophy and thought during the coronavirus crisis

Jovito V. Cariño

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[OPINION] The place of philosophy and thought during the coronavirus crisis
'Too bad there is no vaccine nor quarantine protocol which could limit our political system’s exposure to risks from thoughtless leadership'

Philosophy may be the last thing on any person’s mind these days, and to talk about it when everyone’s mental wellness is almost at its tether’s end may appear distasteful, bordering on the obscene. It does seem to many that philosophy does not have a place in a time of crisis or at least does not have anything to offer to solve or salve its harsh effects. That philosophy has acquired this ill reputation can only be blamed on some academics who equated philosophy with its textbook variety and went on to pollute generations of undergraduate and graduate students with this distorted notion. 

In truth, philosophy and crisis, like the unimpeded spread of COVID-19 in our midst, are an unlikely pair: the former thrives in the domain of thought; the latter demonstrates utter thoughtlessness. What I mean by thoughtlessness can best be illustrated if one surveys the events of recent days. And I am here by no means referring to the pockets of fracas which marred the first 48 hours of the Luzon lockdown’s implementation. 

Yes, there was an agitated crowd, but it was a crowd seized intensely by a consuming thought: the thought of the safety of one’s family; the thought of job security; the thought of one’s survival; the thought of frustration with the subpar national leadership. The multitude we saw on TV – the dispirited, defenseless multitude – is not the exhibit of thoughtlessness I wish to point out.  At the very least, they were in fact its sorry casualties.  

The thoughtlessness in question, from where I see it, can only be attributed not to the disadvantaged and the clueless but to those who were supposed to know better, that is, those who could have planned large scale preventive response at the first instance the outbreak reached our shores; those who should have not risked our people’s wellbeing for fear of offending their Beijing friends; those who should have not taken lightly what was already then a spreading global scare; those who should have declared the community quarantine with better foresight rather than threaten with arrest citizens reacting against confusing orders; those who should have shown better statesmanship at a time of crisis rather than deploy a torrent of trolls and memes.  

It turned out that COVID-19 is revelatory not just of the fragility of human life but also of the utter frailty of the national government’s competence. In previous times, when crisis struck, it was enough to cover this competence deficit with a surplus of presidential bravado and a well-choreographed (and well-documented) public display of affection for the poor (especially victims of natural calamities). COVID-19 however has rendered these theatrics outdated, something media functionaries of Malacañang must have realized, hence the flexing of military presence when the president announced the government’s response to what essentially was a public health emergency.  

The press conference was meant to be a part of crisis management. Its goal was supposed to assuage public fear on the rise and to calm the nerves of restless citizens. In the end, the president’s speech became the signal for people to rush to the nearest grocery stores in a fit of panic, emptying shelves of food, alcohol, noodles, canned goods, and a host of other things they needed to stock up for the almost four-week quarantine. 

At almost the same time, the check points set up in various boundaries within the National Capital Region and beyond became choke points, creating a gridlock in the major arteries leading into and out of the urban centers. Both riders in their private cars and public vehicles were trapped for hours; those who did not get a ride at all had to endure an unimaginable time waiting or an unimaginable distance trekking on their way home.

These were scenes that made “pandemic” a doubly frightening term. People in the streets demanded clarification or clearer instructions to no avail. The conflicting guidelines mouthed by various cabinet secretaries after the press conference hardly helped the situation. No one among the ordinary folks could recall what exactly the message the president gave. They did remember he spoke in rambling, halting words. They also remembered him thanking the president of China.   

Any country or any community will always be susceptible to a crisis of natural origin like COVID-19.  Like any crisis though, this can be mitigated and hopefully completely neutralized given commensurate response and adequate resources. A crisis engendered by thoughtlessness however is something else.

Thoughtlessness in this case resonates with what Hannah Arendt described as the failure to think, that is, the failure of a person to realize the bigger picture surrounding his action driven as he is by his dogged will to perform a duty. Describing Adolf Eichmann, the notorious Nazi official behind the systematic extermination of Jews during the Holocaust, a thoughtless person, wrote Arendt, could commit the most horrendous crime yet remain unperturbed, convinced that his action was an imperative that should take precedence. No qualms of conscience, no guilt, no regrets. In the same fashion, a thoughtless government official, even the highest, would never find himself in the wrong even if he commits a chain of blunders; in his reckoning, there is never an error when one does what he has to do.  

No one is saying COVID-19 is not a menace nor the community quarantine not required. But it must be mentioned that a crisis spawned by thoughtlessness, like any other health pandemic, can be as catastrophic when left undetected or at the very least, unsaid. Too bad there is no vaccine nor quarantine protocol which could limit our political system’s exposure to risks from thoughtless leadership.

To pin our hopes, on the other hand, on the advent of someone like Plato’s philosopher-king is too wishful if not anti-political. The key is really for citizens to re-embrace thought which, I should say, has been one of the collateral benefits of being grounded in the enclosure of our homes. Held down in our respective private spaces, for better or for worse, we have learned to become apprentices of thought. Silence, conversation, reading, or sheer mindfulness – these have become the stories of our daily seclusion. It remains to be seen whether we’d be also enhanced thought-wise when we come out of this enhanced community quarantine. – Rappler.com

Jovito V. Cariño is a member of the Department of Philosophy, University of Santo Tomas.

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