Who is responsible for spreading a contagion? Is there a responsibility that comes when someone is infected? Should the infected or the healthy take care? The act of shutting up houses in Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year is prevention against irresponsible behaviour of infecting others. Brockden’s Arthur Mervyn presents the view when the contagion is in the air. Who can be called responsible then? When the contagion is above our powers, who is to carry the burden? Is it a shared responsibility? Is there a responsibility at all?
To keep you busy while thinking, an interesting online game called Sneeze I found years ago. In the game you are the carrier of a virus and your mission is to infect as many people as possible. Well, have fun and spread the contagion!
