Developing Herd Humility

The Covid-19 virus is an equal opportunity infector; neither wealth, social status, intelligence, nor stupidity affects it’s lethality. In a matter of weeks, a virus so small tens of millions can fit on the head of a pin has thrown global culture into paroxysms of fear and humbled global civilization. The differences between us are less important than what unites us, in this case simple biology. The challenge we face is not herd immunity, but herd humility.

Developing herd humility requires letting go of arrogant self-centeredness in favor of caring about the welfare of others. If ever realizing and accepting the truth of interdependence is required, it’s now. Protecting my neighbor’s health intrinsically protects my own. We are “our brother’s keeper,” not just in an ethical sense, but literally; if I do not make a sacrifice of my own freedom for the sake of the health of others, all of us will be lost, not in the Trumpian sense of winners or losers, but as civilization as a whole.