Power and Liberty

Of course, people are chaffing at limits to personal liberty. But we do it anyway. Deep down we know this is for our own good. It isn’t natural for Americans to limit liberty; their entire way of life is based on doing what comes to mind and following personal dreams.


There are limits of course. Order is necessary for life to function well; order comes from self-limiting our activities. We don’t like washing clothes or dishes, or vacuuming the rungs, but we do it because not doing it leads to an intolerable mess.


Same with food. We feel hunger and find food to satisfy. Finding the food and preparing it are two important steps necessary for satisfying hunger, but in our society finding food is easy for most of us, and preparing it depends on the products we buy. Some products are ready to go; just zap it in the microwave, stir, and eat.


Buying the food in whatever convenience standard requires paying for it with earnings from our labor. We give up our time and self interest to work for someone else to earn an income with which to buy products that satisfy our personal needs. The limit on personal liberty is obvious in this example.


So, now comes a public health crisis in which we are all in danger of being contaminated by a powerful virus. We don’t know much about this enemy and we are hard pressed to medically care for it let alone avoid its tragic arc among the population. All we do know are precautions that we can take to avoid infection and what to do about it if we get it. Experience is building within the medical and scientific community on how to handle the crisis.


Those good folks advise governing authorities and they in turn make decisions that hopefully protect the public. Protection is for our common health, and defense of scarce medical services, supplies and personnel.


We give up personal liberty at times such as these. In return we receive an improved opportunity for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in the future. Pretty basic transaction.


We give up something to get something. When it comes down to life and death, the exchange rate has nothing much to do with value. We do what we have to do to survive and live for another day.


Why are we explaining this? Because there are 35% of our fellow citizens who believe they have given up enough liberty. With guns (AK 47s, no less!) they parade around in protest to the COVID-19 quarantine. Some of these protestors are in full protective medical masks and gloves; others are totally unprotected. The obvious is too hilarious to mention.


Power is provided by the people of a nation to their leaders, however selected or empowered. Those leaders make decisions to serve and protect the commonweal. We follow those decisions for our own good. It is a quid pro quo of the first order.


It is the basis upon which our nation was founded and continues to function. By the way, most of us do not rely on guns to make our point. We live in trust and order.


Not chaos and fear.


April 23, 2020