Thursday, August 05, 2021

Liberty and harm..


I thought this was a good metaphor for the current angst some people seem to have about wearing masks in crowded public places. To many of us (majority?) this seems like the *least* intrusive and yet most effective (i.e. best bang-for-buck) safety measure we could take to help prevent the spread of Covid? To many others it apparently feels like some kind of infringement to their personal liberty. 

I am a liberal myself, I believe in the idea that people should be free but I don't understand this particular and apparently selfish feeling, or the motivations behind it. It's not a new problem of course, I'm reminded what J. S. Mill said about doing harm and liberalism (and he wrote the book on liberty!) he said, "people should be free to act however they wish unless their actions cause harm to somebody else". Shame more people don't live by this principal, it would be a much fairer and less lethal world if we did.

 

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