Thank you, Dave Groves, for such a topical question!
Yes, it is okay; don’t worry about it, enjoy your isolation in peace – that’s the short answer. Here is the long answer:
It is important to recognise, first, that a great deal of happiness is built on the suffering of others. Were it not for people working in inhumane conditions on the other side of the world, you and I would not benefit from the wealth of goods and services which sustain our everyday lives. The good news, then, is that the lockdown case is not really all that different to many cases involving happiness derived from products or services. Problem solved! Or perhaps this introduces a deeper concern…
For all that we have said, we might now worry that it is in fact not okay to be happy in a vast majority of circumstances. If ordinary happiness is indeed akin to happiness resulting from a pandemic, it would seem that we cannot take for granted that our usual state of happiness is morally justified. Let’s clarify a couple of things.
First, what exactly are you happy about? I am assuming that you are enjoying some alone time, time to get things done, time off work and so on. I take it that you are not enjoying the suffering that many people are experiencing around the world. Likewise, you are ordinarily happy to drink a coffee, eat a chocolate bar, use your phone and so on. You are not happy about the myriad cases of suffering behind your access to these things. What matters is not whether you are happy, but what it is you are happy about.
It is in nobody’s interest for you to deny yourself happiness on the basis that it is built on suffering. Rather, become incensed that this relationship holds where it need not, and express your unhappiness at this fact in whatever way seems best to you. In the case of the pandemic, this is as simple as enjoying your isolation without allowing this enjoyment to spill over into enjoying the indirect cause of your happiness. Hate the disease; love the freedom the disease brings you. Express sympathy where necessary; enjoy happiness where it comes naturally.
Emotions such as happiness simply are. Even if it wasn’t okay, according to some moral system, to be happy as an indirect result of a pandemic, so what? What are you going to do about it? You cannot choose to be unhappy, not directly anyway (you may give yourself a few intentionally stubbed toes, but this seems beside the point). Instead, use your critical faculties to intellectually appreciate the nuances of the world. Let your emotional faculties feel.
And never confuse your own happiness with the desirability of its cause. I think we would agree that this pandemic is a blight, whether or not you are personally benefiting.
What do you think? Is it okay to be happy during lockdown? Let us know in the comments.
And, as always, if you have a question for the Armchair Philosophers, don’t hesitate to get in touch. You could send us a message or fill in this form.
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I did a BA in Philosophy and Literature at the University of Warwick, an MPhil in Philosophy at Warwick and am about to start a PhD in Philosophy at… Warwick. My primary research interests are the philosophy of cognitive science, philosophy of mind and the ontology of concepts (basically I want to know what concepts are). Immanuel Kant is the source of much inspiration for me. My views on cognition are overtly Kantian and I’m pretty sure he solved the whole idealism thing with transcendental idealism, the only sensible position one can take.