Posted: Apr 13, 2020 6:30 am
If there's one political philosophy that's being bloodied and bruised by the pandemic and responses to it, it's not democracy, or capitalism, but libertarianism. And indeed james's horror of what's unfolding is being preached from a libertarian pulpit, wherein every individual freedom, no matter how small, is elevated over the common good.
But reality is taking a bit of a shit on libertarianism, brutally exposing its amorality by forcing us to accept our shared interests as a society by making those shared interests literally a life and death issue. Funnily enough, when people's lives (or those of their loved ones) are on the line, suddenly the "I ought to be free to do as I please, no matter the consequences for others." types are getting the contempt they've always deserved.
From most people, of course, not all.
But reality is taking a bit of a shit on libertarianism, brutally exposing its amorality by forcing us to accept our shared interests as a society by making those shared interests literally a life and death issue. Funnily enough, when people's lives (or those of their loved ones) are on the line, suddenly the "I ought to be free to do as I please, no matter the consequences for others." types are getting the contempt they've always deserved.
From most people, of course, not all.