Delta Straussians Know How to Live with Covid
Don’t fret about rising case numbers. Just get vaccinated and live your life.
As the delta variants spread, and as the number of vaccinations continues to rise, a new Covid stance is evolving: Namely, we should not look too closely at the new situation for fear of being spooked by high case numbers.
There is the hyper-careful view found in “blue” locales such as San Francisco, there is Covid denialism (most prominent in the South), and now a third attitudinal alternative is emerging — what I call delta Straussianism, after the 20th-century political theorist Leo Strauss. Invoking Plato’s idea of the “noble lie,” Strauss had argued more broadly that polities could not look all social truths squarely in the eye: The “noble lie” in this instance is that it is better not to obsess too much over case numbers. Proponents of this attitude — let’s call them delta Straussians — simply proceed with their lives and business and hope for the best.