We are also a social species Mark, and we share a way of life that is threatened by things other than just tyranny against the individual. Things like pathogens. And things like misinformation. And cynicism.
We also have public goods and common needs and concerns other than what individuals may prefer to do in a given situation.
Of course public health policy is coercive if it is enforced by law, the question is whether that coercion is justified or not.
You’ve assumed the coercion isn’t justified and you’re dismissing any possibility of justification as if it were illegitimate in principle because it is coercive.
I respect your commitment to political minimalism but I don’t share it. I understand there can seem to be good reasons for cynicism but I don’t share quite that degree of it needed to assume there is some sort of unified false story driving public health efforts in general .
So the argument that any justification for public health measures is illegitimate and dismissible on psychological grounds seems profoundly undemocratic to me.
We are also a social species Mark, and we share a way of life that is threatened by things other than just tyranny against the individual. Things like pathogens. And things like misinformation. And cynicism.
We also have public goods and common needs and concerns other than what individuals may prefer to do in a given situation.
Of course public health policy is coercive if it is enforced by law, the question is whether that coercion is justified or not.
You’ve assumed the coercion isn’t justified and you’re dismissing any possibility of justification as if it were illegitimate in principle because it is coercive.
I respect your commitment to political minimalism but I don’t share it. I understand there can seem to be good reasons for cynicism but I don’t share quite that degree of it needed to assume there is some sort of unified false story driving public health efforts in general .
So the argument that any justification for public health measures is illegitimate and dismissible on psychological grounds seems profoundly undemocratic to me.
Do you see my concern here?