The right to resist in times of COVID-19: the case of the Belarusian professional football

Abstract

The morality embedded in the mind of the masses is: respect the authorities and obey the rules and laws of the society in which they live. Nonetheless, there is a tension between a blind, unthinking obedience and the right to make autonomous moral decisions, namely when such authorities or their acts are corrupt or illegitimate. In that situation, should citizens think for themselves, they would not be actually circumventing the community rules, defying the constituted authorities or being deviant individuals, but carrying out their will, making their own moral decisions and defending their rights and wellness. This is what people, especially the professional footballers, are facing in Belarus, whether following the recommendations of the World Health Organization and most of the virologists around the globe or the President’s coronavirus guidelines. Nevertheless, the best option seems to be the enforcement of an old but not outdated right (and/or duty?): the resistance.