This morning, I was reading a few articles in different newspapers from around the world…

In Belgium, a citizen is suing the government for 50 Euro / day because due to the Lockdown he is unable to go to his weekend house at the seaside.

In Berlin (Germany), Thousands of protesters slam isolation measures to decry coronavirus-triggered restrictions imposed by the government.

In Michigan (USA), one million residents refuse to stay home after the governor, Gretchen Whitmer, extended the lockdown.

In California (USA), Tesla and Elon Musk reopen facility, defying orders meant to stem coronavirus spread.

In South Africa, a new group called “End the Lockdown” rallies citizens against “unnecessary” laws.

Alex Jones, a USA conspiracy theorist, declares on his InfoWars webcast “I’m not letting my kids die. I’m just going to be honest. I will eat my neighbors”.

Clearly, the tension between Individual Freedom and Civic Engagement is growing. And the discussion of the day at the breakfast table became: What is one willing to freely sacrifice for the good of the other or the World? 

Across the world, governments are introducing measures considered absolutely necessary 

to fight the spread of the Coronavirus. Many countries are under (full) lockdown, schools have been shuttered. Museums, galleries, bars, restaurants and non-essential businesses are being ordered closed. Borders are being shut and travel restrictions put into place.

EuroMOMO, a network of epidemiologists who collect weekly reports on deaths from all causes in 24 European countries, covering 350m people reported: “Compared to the baseline average of deaths from 2009-19, the flu seasons of 2017, 2018 and 2019 were all unusually lethal. But the covid-19 pandemic, which arrived much later in the year, has already reached a higher peak—and would have been far more damaging without social-distancing measures”. EuroMOMO’s figures suggest that there were about 140,000 excess deaths between March 16th and April 26th.

While most of us are confined to our homes amidst world-wide lockdowns, millions are venturing out daily into this (pandemic). There are those working to keep the floods of patients alive: doctors, nurses, hospital aids, hospital sanitation workers, and administrative workers. There are those who work to get us fed and medicated: grocery workers, warehouse packers, delivery workers. There are countless more, on farms, in plants; there are prisoners sewing face masks.

Local support groups are organizing on social media. Volunteers are rallying to help people self-isolating by delivering groceries and medicine, walking dogs, or offering other assistance.

As individuals, we are asked to make sacrifices for the greater good. Social distancing measures are being implemented to ease pressure on healthcare systems and to help protect the most vulnerable groups in society, the elderly, those with weak immune, or those with chronic medical conditions.

We also experience the worst economic downturn since the great depression. The magnitude and speed of collapse in activity is unlike anything experienced in our lifetimes. And there is substantial uncertainty about its impact on people’s lives and livelihoods. Income per capita is projected to shrink for over 170 countries according to IMF.

“Over 20 million jobs lost in the USA” (NYT), “500 million people pushed into poverty” (WEF), “the number of people living in acute hunger will double” (UN).

Many governments are now worried about public anger with restrictions on normal life. How much disruption are people willing to accept? Do they see the reasons for changing our behavior so radically in such a short space of time? Are they willing to accept the consequences?

How many freedoms are you willing to sacrifice for the greater good?

Over the past 75 years, The Western World has made significant political and economic progress towards a free and democratic society. Individual rights have been extended to virtually every segment of the population. Our system of checks and balances has been repeatedly tested and found solvent. Economically, we enjoy a standard of living that is the world’s envy. However, there are social and cultural requisites of a free and democratic society as well as political and economic ones. Our mistake has been to neglect the social and cultural context in which individual liberty can be meaningfully exercised. We have assumed that a republican form of government and a neoliberal market economy are all that is needed to make freedom a reality. The price we pay for this misjudgment is today more than evident in the unraveling of the social fabric. 

A free society is predicated on civic responsibility, on a willingness of the citizen to participate in the chores of community. We have, however, developed a flawed conception of freedom. We have defined freedom as the abandonment of constraints. We have always prized liberty; it is the most defining characteristic of what it is to live in a democracy. But only in recent years has freedom become come to mean freedom from constraint. The idea of limits has become an unfair abridgement of human liberty. Moral codes and ethics, which are by their very nature restrictive, are cast as the enemy of freedom. Not everybody shares this idea of freedom. They do not. But it is the ascendant idea, the one that screams the loudest and grabs the most attention.

A democratic society is not possible without the exercise of restraints. Individuals should be able to freely pursue their own interests, consistent always with respect for the rights of others and in deference to the general interest of society. The principle of constitutional government and rule by law is the model on which the Western idea of freedom is based.

Aristotle said it best:” Every man should be responsible to others, nor should any be allowed to do just as he pleases; for where absolute freedom is allowed there is nothing to restrain the evil which is inherent in man.” 

Community is important. It is the key to social wellbeing and to psychological health. Both society and the individual will fall apart unless some measure of community is achieved.

Man naturally inclines towards the pursuit of his own interests, yet cannot live except in society, which demands that he yields to the interests of others. The trick is to find the most palatable way of making society possible.

I would like to end this article with a prayer from a famous Dutch comedian, singer and writer, Toon Hermans (free translation to English):

Give me grace

to see my fellow man

with the eyes of love.

Humble me

and selfless.

Because only along this road

I come out

with the others,

who need my Love.

Bibliography

The Limits of Liberty: Individual Freedom and Social Disorders, William A. Donohue, The Heritage Foundation, 1988.