The Future Of Morality.

Future-reflections from the start 2020 Covid-19 pandemic

One question has been on my mind since this started; how is lockdown going to change us? What are the psycho-social effects of a pandemic?

I am not arguing about the ethics of the lockdown, I think we have all been working with the horrendous hand we have been dealt, but what are the consequences?

It turns out, that human beings and pathogens are old rivals, and these viruses have a profound impact on our society. From the straight-laced Victorian morality brought about by the threat of Syphilis or the medieval confessional Christianity which emerged from the bubonic plague, one of the greatest threats to the continuation of society has been these microscopic, invisible foes. This pathogen problem is part of the reason so much of morality deals with what we eat, who we have sex with, and how we clean ourselves. In this sense, the behaviour of the individual can endanger the whole tribe, and in a global village, a guy in Wuhan eats bat soup, and we can’t leave the house for six weeks, w…