FROM THE PUBLISHER’S DESK
4
The social contract
Man is born free, and he is
everywhere in chains.”
The famous opening line to
Rousseau’s “Social Contract” sums up
our inescapable reality. We are governed
by laws, choking on rules and
bound by duties. We can’t drink and
drive. We buckle up. We pay our taxes.
The Covid-19 crisis has triggered
additions to the list of things we are
pressed to do. Wear face coverings.
Stand six feet apart from other people.
Sanitize. Lock up behind your doors.
Shutter up your business. Steer clear of
public parks and beaches.
Written in 1762, the
“Social Contract” has
reemerged in political and
academic discussions,
pushed to the fore by the
Covid-19 pandemic. The
restrictions imposed by
governments around the
world to curb further spread
of the coronavirus remind
us of the delicate equilibrium
between democracy
and obedience to the
government in exchange for
protection.
By definition, “social contract” is an
“implicit agreement among the members
of a society to cooperate for social
benefits, for example by sacrificing
some individual freedom for state protection.”
In these desperate times, this
is nonnegotiable.
Guam residents who are protesting
Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero’s new
lockdown directive randomly toss the
words “tyranny” and “dictatorship,”
trivializing the real plight of people
who actually live under such regime
(e.g., the Philippines, where citizens
are warned of getting shot for violating
presidential directives.)
With the unprecedented surge of
Covid-19 cases on Guam and a lack
of a cure or vaccines, charting new
pathways in order to limit the catastrophic
impact of the virus
is imperative.
Staying home, social
distancing and putting up
with the inconvenience of
wearing face masks are
small prices to pay to save
the island’s fragile health
care system, to show regard
for the frontliners who
make bigger sacrifices, and
to accelerate our return to
normalcy.
A collective cooperation
is indispensable to make up for
the government’s policy failures and
the community’s cavalier attitude that
caused the second wave to roll in. The
heightened public health crisis has
revealed that we are not really all in
this together.
We don’t like it. We don’t like the
collective “punishment” for the faults
of the stubborn lot. But we have come
to a point where civil disobedience
won’t help either.
Tyranny is not one of the governor’s
attributes. In this time of crisis, her
softness manifested a tentative leadership
that became her liability. Here’s
the sequel— another chance for the
administration to show strength and
effective governance.
Beyond defeating the coronavirus,
emerging from the economic carnage
— mass bankruptcies and widespread
unemployment— is the greater challenge
besetting us. The economic
lockdowns are imposing the greatest
cost on those already the worst.
The current health emergency will
eventually pass, but the community
must be assured that the government
knows what it is doing, that it has an
exit strategy and a clear recovery plan
to rescue the businesses that followed
orders and to salvage the thousands
from the sea of unemployment.
Sacrifices are inevitable, but the
community expects true protection in
return, as sealed in the social contract.
Beyond defeating the coronavirus,
emerging from the economic carnage
— mass bankruptcies and widespread
unemployment— is the greater
challenge besetting Guam.
Publisher/Editor-in-Chief
Mar-Vic Cagurangan
[email protected]
Contributing Writers
Vincent Akimoto
Raquel Bagnol
Bea Cabrera
Phillip Cruz, Jr.
Zaldy Dandan
Jayne Flores
Jeni Ann Flores
Geoff Goodman
Joseph Guthrie
Theodore Lewis
Diana Mendoza
Johanna Salinas
Joy Santamarina
Alex Rhowuniong
Jay Shedd
Visual Editor
Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Sales and Marketing Executive
Jan SN Furukawa
[email protected]
Account Executive
Anna Marie Alegre
[email protected]
Administrative Assistant
Ricky Panelo
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