Culture and Covid: The Communitarian Solution
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown, in stark relief, the rampant individualism of the “Me Culture” -- people ignore basic safety measures that would protect the collective. Instead of wearing masks, people claim infringement on personal liberty. Instead of showing solidarity towards fragile neighbors, they care about their own need to party first.
In a “Me Culture” people are guided by one mantra: “I have the right to feel valued and happy.” The self-centered nature of this philosophy focuses on what is good for me and what can make me happy.
But if the “Me Culture” is the problem, what’s the solution? We need to cultivate a new philosophy of life where “We all have the right and responsibility to feel valued and add value, to self and others, so that we may all experience wellness and fairness.” We call this a “We Culture.” Whereas the “Me Culture” is primarily individualistic, hedonistic, acquiescent, and ameliorative, a “We Culture” is communitarian, purposeful, challenging, and transformative. Had we all embraced the latter, we could have avoided much of the ravages of the corona-virus pandemic.
In the United States, the lack of fairness in social policy manifested itself in the disproportionate number of deaths of Black and Latinx due to COVID-19. These populations suffer from many pre-existing conditions, the result of policies that neglected both their wellness and their need for fairness. The pandemic further demonstrates the flaws on relying exclusively on individualistic solutions such as personal responsibility. In places where the “Me Culture” reigns supreme, we saw parties with hundreds of people mingling in close range without any face covering. Prototypical exemplars of a hedonistic and egotistical culture, these people were concerned, first and foremost, with their personal freedom and their right to be happy. Adding insult to injury, politicians exploited the debate over masks to fuel the politics of resentment, imploring citizens to “liberate” states where democratic governors were demanding face covering. In the United States, the pandemic exposed the fact that government policies promoted neither wellness nor fairness.
Had we espoused a “We Culture,” people would have engaged in mutual responsibility as opposed to reckless behavior. We would not have pitted personal liberty against collective wellness. Instead, we would have striven to reach a balance between adding value to self and adding value to others.
The colossal failure of the United States to respond appropriately to the pandemic reminds us that the “Me Culture” is wholly incapable to dealing effectively with collective problems. For as long as mattering is defined as the personal right to feel valued and be happy, we will continue to fail as a society. We can only hope that a new generation will balance the right to feel valued with the responsibility to add value, not just to the self, but to others. We can only hope that government policy will foster not only individual wellness but also social fairness. In a healthy society, there cannot be wellness for all without fairness for all
Dr. Isaac Prilleltensky is an award-winning academic and author. He is also a coach, consultant and a researcher. His latest book, co-authored with his wife, Dr. Ora Prilleltensky, is How People Matter: Why it Affects Health, Happiness, Love, Work, and Society (Cambridge University Press, 2021). Press here to pre-order.