Utilitarianism, Populism and Quasi-Ethical Dilemmas of the Pandemic

Abstract

The idea of the modern state promotes the ethics of utilitarianism, citizenship and non-personalized relations between government and society. While preserving the democratic shell, populism promotes personal, authoritarian rule that allegedly removes the intermediaries between the authorities and the subjects. Pandemic revealed the inefficient futility of populism as populist regimes abused epidemiological measures and medical priorities to further restrict democratic rights and personal freedoms. Populist and autocratic regimes, supposedly based on the principles of subordination, order and discipline, contributed to the spread and duration of the pandemic, the illness and death of millions of people, the global erosion of freedoms and democracy, and the principles and mechanisms of public health, with their disregard for evidence-based medicine and science and even human lives.

Ideja moderne države zasnovana je na etici utilitarizma, na građanstvu i nepersonaliziranim odnosima između vlasti i društva. Dok čuva demokratsku ljušturu, populizam je zasnovan na osobnoj, autoritarnoj vlasti koja navodno uklanja posrednike između vlasti i podanika. Pandemija je otkrila neučinkovitu uzaludnost populizma jer su populistički režimi zloupotrebljavali epidemiološke mjere i medicinske prioritete za daljnje sužavanje demokratskih prava i osobnih sloboda. Navodno utemeljeni na načelima podređenosti, reda i discipline, populistički i autokratski režimi, svojim zanemarivanjem medicine zasnovane na dokazima i znanosti, čak i ljudskih života, doprinijeli su širenju i trajanju pandemije, bolesti i smrti milijuna ljudi, globalnoj eroziji sloboda i demokracije, kao i načela i mehanizama javnog zdravlja.