Duty in the Time of Coronavirus
My favourite film is Casablanca. I first saw it over 40 years ago. I like it for many reasons. Chief amongst those reasons is the theme of duty that runs through the film. It is the type of duty that the philosopher Immanuel Kant called an imperfect duty and that I have referred to as a privileged duty.
As I write this, we are living through the most extra-ordinary of times. Most of us have no experience of the restrictions on our liberty that have been imposed upon us in order to combat an invisible, insidious, invader. The Coronavirus pandemic has disrupted our lives in ways that just a few weeks ago would have been unthinkable. Our precious way of life is under threat. It is at times like this that strong and resolute people take a step forward.
We talk a great deal about human rights these days. Although by no means perfect, a world ordered by respect for human rights is, undoubtedly, a better world than one where a human rights discourse is absent. One of the challenges, however, of a rights discourse is that we lose sight of our duties. We look to what we are entitled rather than to what we can contribute. Those people who step forward at this time of challenge, emboldened by adversity and strengthened in unity, do so to answer the call to serve their communities. For them, the pull of duty is overwhelming.
In this article, I’m not thinking about duties as the correlatives of rights. Usually, where there is a right there is a correlative duty that allows that right to be enforced. I find it difficult to conceive of circumstances where there is a right without some correlative duty. If you have such a duty imposed upon you, you have no choice but to act in accordance with it. You may be very happy to do so. You may not be so happy. You just don’t have much of a say in things. Thus, if someone has a right of way over your land, your duty, like it or not, is to allow people to exercise that right.
Though it may be hard to conceive of circumstances where there is a right without some correlative duty, the reverse situation — duties without any connecting rights — is certainly conceivable. And it is these types of duties that interest me in this article.
At the end of Casablanca, Rick arranges for Ilsa to leave Casablanca with Victor. Rick believes the duty that he and Ilsa have to fight against Nazism and the liberation of the free world is greater than their desire, their entitlement, their freedom, to be together. They did not have to do this. They could have chosen to stay together and leave Victor to fight the good fight alone. In fact, we could say they had a right to stay together and live happily ever after in Casablanca.
A privileged duty, therefore, is one where there is no correlative right allowing the duty to be enforced. There is a right; most certainly, it is a right, however, on the duty holder to ignore the duty if she so pleases. At this time of existential threat there is a duty on all of those who are able to step forward and serve their communities. It is a duty that can be ignored. But like Rick and Ilsa people of strength; people of resolve, of determination, of purpose do not ignore the call to serve their communities.
Those who have so put themselves forward to serve their communities will have their stories to tell in years to come. They will tell their stories with their heads held high and a swell of pride in their chests. That is the privilege they have from performing their duty. Casablanca is a work of fiction, but privileged duties are very real.
