How Can 7.9 Billion People Survive?

And even thrive... This question has many nuances to consider. In this column, let’s chew on the question of how we function in a political sense vis a vis the pandemic. If we accept a definition found in Wikipedia that “politics” is a set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, it seems evident that the more people affected, the more challenging the decisions can become.

As an example, in our local area, we have seen some recent decisions made by children’s camps to release wastewater into streams (plus draw water for recreational use) stir action by folks that viewed that as a threat. If there were no persons seeing the threat, it could be considered the “liberty” of the camp owners to make such a decision.

In another simple example, we drive our vehicles within certain speeds since there are others that could be affected by excessive speed. As we know, a driver wanting to use excessive speed can have their “liberty” to do so thwarted.

If there were no or few other people around, we could hunt and fish as much and wherever we want , create large noises night and day etc. - in other words engage freely in our personal desires and actions to meet our needs and interests. But we have had to develop some restrictions on our behavior and actions as well as define some steps as a group to help ourselves as individuals.

This seems obvious and simple but we as a society have gotten bogged down with gaming ourselves for the purpose of being in the most powerful tribe to define societal rules. I look at the response to the pandemic and the disinformation surrounding it as a case in point.

There are many that are opposed to the actions put forth to combat the pandemic indicating several specific objections but one that is particularly challenging is the idea of personal liberty in regard to vaccines (as well as masks) being used to combat the pandemic. For objections such as the speed of the vaccine development and its effectiveness, there is plenty of information based on data to refute hesitation on those grounds. Indeed, I maintain that those types of claims as grounds for forgoing health advice recommendations are bogus.

For those that are sincere about the concept of personal liberty in regard to this current pandemic situation, I think there is an urgent need for a shift in consideration regarding the interface between the personal and the community at large. We recognize that all societies-past and current-have shifted to what we can call greater curtailments on personal liberties as their numbers increased. Some of this has been done for reasons of power and domination. However, with the prevalence of democratic principles in many current societies (including ours), much has been done ostensibly with the interest of the community at large.

However, I am afraid that the main motivation for ignoring the current health recommendations to get vaccinated and take other recommended precautions is to “own the libs” – a political action. If there are people that sincerely see this as a personal liberty issue, I ask them to look at the balance between the good of the overall community versus individual desire. As we will soon pass 8 billion humans on this planet, this balance needs to be addressed.

This is not an inference that an authoritarian approach is the way forward. We should strive to bolster our democratic processes in this aim. By having representatives in our government that we freely select and hold accountable to use the best thinking and science to help us respond to all types of threats, this seems to me our best option in a world that seems to be becoming smaller. Indeed, we should inform ourselves - without assigning labels - through the best education and information.

We may feel that we have been wronged or misled by government actions in the distant and recent past but giving up on our interest and capacity to make it work toward the betterment of everyone does not make sense.

Of course, if someone has a better way to go, let’s hear it. Billions of humans will be interested.

W Laurence Doxsey, Retired, Former Director of Office of Sustainability for City of San Antonio, former Environmental Officer for US Department of Housing and Urban Development, former Sustainability Officer for City of Austin, resides outside Medina.