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The pandemic of cultural relativism

Daniel Jesús Orbaiz, student 3rd year History and Journalism student, reflects on the mediatic performance of tennis player Novak Djokovic and its repercussions on the current pandemic status
 

One of the great problems that cultural relativism generates is the equal validity of and respect for all opinions. To this end, it is claimed that democracy is the place where all have a place. However, this is a simple way of understanding democracy. Itis not feasible to think that they are all equally valid or equally respectable. The example of COVID-19 and vaccines makes this clear: how can the opinion of a scientist who develops vaccines be the same as that of a tennis player who insinuates that the earth is flat?

The Novak Djokovic affair at the Australian Open highlights the problem of understanding the spirit of democracy. Australia imposed a - perhaps exaggerated - law prohibiting anyone who was not vaccinated from entering the Australian continent entrance . Djokovic, in addition to not complying with the law, lied on form at entrance in order to try to take advantage of a loophole in the law. In other words, he tried to get around the law. 

People who appeal to freedom to show that Djokovic has been wronged are crushing the premise of the founding texts of the United States: no one shall be above the law, all shall be equal before the law. Where is there freedom in that one, because he is famous and a millionaire, can lie on the forms and break the law? What is so heroic about that? Democracy is about allowing people to disagree about a law, to denounce that a rule may be exaggerated, not very internship or even bordering on illegality, but it is not about holding up as an example of freedom someone who breaks the law.

On the other hand, the questioning of the usefulness of vaccines on the basis of very rare side effects does not do any good for Public discourse. From the outset, the WHO explained that vaccines would not prevent all infections, but would reduce their effects. When one looks at the current infection and hospital admission figures and compares them with those of a year ago, one can see how useful vaccines really are. 

These are facts, not opinions about whether the evil Americans are misleading us about the shape of the earth or whether a microchip is inserted in the vaccine. By the way, one of the theses of the terraplaners is that Australia does not exist, because it does not fit on the flat map. So where did Djokovic want to enter?

Australia does exist, it has done it late, but it has done it well. The law is the same for everyone, including the millionaire tennis player who breaks rackets when he loses.

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