There’s a balance in any democratic society between individual freedoms and each person’s responsibility to their community. Just where that balance lies varies from country to country, but the United States is way over at the individual-freedoms end of the spectrum.
A teacher of mine contended that when the Declaration of Independence asserted that “all men” possessed “inalienable rights” to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” the unspoken context was a shared understanding that everyone also had an obligation to comply with communal expectations in the service of a well-functioning society. Whereas the Declaration didn’t say, “notwithstanding our duty to the greater good, we also have inalienable rights as individuals,” it didn’t need to because our mutual obligations were a given. It was the idea of individual rights that was new.
But in the decades since 1776, the idea of collective responsibility has receded in the public consciousness and the guarantee of individual rights has come to dominate. Those who buck the tide, defy convention, and spurn expectations are celebrated, and that is arguably a large part of what has made our country strong and our economy resilient. But over the last several decades, our embrace of individual autonomy has become almost fetishistic. Those who suggest restricting individual freedoms for the benefit of society as a whole are ferociously resisted.
President Trump’s “America First” slogan is just a macro-level reflection of today’s “my rights come first” American ethos. It’s gotten to the point where Americans can’t agree on almost any sacrifice of personal freedoms in the service of the greater good, whether it’s restricting gun ownership, supporting an individual mandate for health coverage, or limiting development in a flood plain. “Nobody can tell me what to do” could be our national motto.
Which brings us to masks. Epidemiologists say that wearing masks could, all by itself, make the difference between a rising and a falling number of new cases of Covid-19. But they also emphasize that wearing masks is not something we do for ourselves, it’s something we do for other people. In many countries, that message has led to widespread adoption of mask-wearing and a significant curtailing of contagion. But it’s not carrying the day in the United States. The use of masks is on the wane in some areas and has been all but rejected in others.
I suspect that, in the case of the current pandemic, that ethos will lead to catastrophe. Infection rates are increasing in 22 states at this point. Neither government officials nor ordinary citizens have any appetite for reimposing mandatory shutdowns, and that might be O.K. if the majority of people would follow social distancing protocols and wear masks. But all indications are that they will not.
I wonder whether rates of coronavirus infection in different parts of the United States will ultimately correlate with the degree to which people in each region share a libertarian mindset. In any case, the United States may currently be engaged in a massive Darwinian experiment that tests our cultural fitness to survive the worst pandemic in a century.
Nicely put. Another reason the authors of the Declaration may not have thought to mention our common good was that they were busy extricating themselves from British rule. It’s strange that, for many anti-maskers crying ‘Don’t tread on me!’, their own government has been put in the role of King George. Not to mention that wearing a mask isn’t even purely altruistic, since the victim you save by wearing a mask could be a loved one. There’s a strong element of acting against self-interest in all of this.
Looking forward to more of your posts!