A Case For Sonder: rejecting putting a price tag on life

All throughout the world, health professionals are facing some of the most disheartening scenes of our times. Their efforts are valiant, there’s no denying that. These men and women are on the front line of a conflict that has no precedent. They charge into battle each and every day. Some may be critical of the use of bellicose rhetoric, of this language of war. I will, however, be a contrarian. It is a necessity to adopt such an approach. This is, indeed, a war. We have seen a soul-crushing number of casualties, each and every single one of them a tragedy. However, fortunately, the vast majority of us have merely been passive witnesses to this calamity.

Healthcare providers have not been vested with such good fortunes. They have not only been real, active witnesses to this great human tragedy, but as well, they have found themselves playing the part of the ​Moirai​. The ​Moirai,​ the Sisters of Fate to the Greeks in antiquity, controlled the thread of life from every mortal being from birth to death. When looking at the heart-wrenching stories that have come out from severely hit nations, such as Italy and Spain, where doctors and nurses have been forced into the horrible task of defining which patients get to live or die, such a comparison becomes palpably clear.

One thing needs to be made explicit: the fact that these men and women are being forced into such scenarios is beyond dreadful. As stated previously, they are already being forced to deal with the horrors which we’re fortunate enough to learn from through our televisions and phones. I understand that the dire nature of the circumstances is forcing such draconian pragmatism to become the order the day; I will not abdicate rationality for the sake of blind idealism. However, what I will do is make a case against this becoming a norm, for one cannot assign such value to one life over the other.

To do so would be to negate the potential of every single human life, regardless of caveats and descriptives. Thanks to equality of opportunity, one of the hallmarks of modern life throughout the global north, this has never been more pertinent. Every single individual, regardless of their background, age or identity is nowadays capable of attaining their full potential in life. Opportunities and ambitions are plentiful, and to seize them has never in human history been more possible. To artificially and arbitrarily define that some lives are in any way whatsoever more valuable than others, and then to act on these judgements, is a violation of this principle. Such a violation should never, under any circumstances, become ordinary and mundane.

However, and perhaps of far greater importance, to allow for these measures to become commonplace would be to allow for us all to be led astray from the path towards something we should as a society aim for now more than ever; sonder. To acknowledge that every single stranger we pass by as we make our way through a street has a deep, complex reality much like our own, something we cannot even begin to contemplate. Every single person enjoys a completely unique conscious experience. They have things that provide them with joy, they love and are loved. Every individual alive at this moment in time, or any other moment indeed, is or has been an entire cosmos we are not able to fathom. To pretend then that we can arbitrarily assign disparate values to individuals is folly.

I wholeheartedly understand the case for the measures being adopted by doctors and nurses throughout Europe in these challenging times. We should not be blinded by idealism amidst the crisis our world now faces. Our reality is what it is, and if such actions are necessary for the greater good, that of saving as many lives as it is possible, then we should indeed adopt them. However, let us not allow for them to erode our character. We ought to understand that these awful measures may just so happen to be the medicine needed to fight this plague, or to at least ensure that its toll is not as cruel as it could be. At the same time, though, let us not forget that to assign value to human life in such an arbitrary manner should not become a normalized aspect of life once we have won this war, whenever that may be.

The great cosmos that is every single living individual is invaluable. Let us not be ignorant to that, regardless of the violent and brutal tidings of circumstance. With our character untarnished, accepting that conscious experience is beyond the realm of value, we will see through these times of plague and dread. We will, together, weather out this storm.