Whether we put the label "freedom" or "liberty" on the subject we can clearly perceive the loss of these essential gifts of God all about us in our political world today.
Of course there are the restrictions arbitrarily imposed by statewide executive fait and justified by Corona 19. Equally threatening in my judgment are the restrictions coming from our digital masters on our sovereign power of speech.
We see the Rousseau concepts serving up justification to Google or Twitter for their denial of free speech. By the time these rationalizations are finished the believers are convinced that they are actually preventing harm to humanity even as they choke off the very speech that is the only thing that can save us. Once one identifies himself as the implementer of the "general will" any other opinion is, of course, a threat to humanity. Love of humanity, even Decency, require it be "canceled"-or in the digital world simply banished into the ether.
Interesting that you would say it that way in your last paragraph of that post. I think we see along the same lines. I just wrote this in another thread on the concept of Coronavirus "Herd Immunity":
The resistance of many to embracing the concept of “herd immunity” is not surprising. It isn’t just the conflict between a non-battlefield medical point of view that means everyone must be saved all the time everywhere and an executive view that choices must be made (more of a battlefield triage) and that the choice between destroying an economy and/or industry and creating misery on a large scale due to poverty and hunger outweighs the number of lives that might be saved by draconian measures.
I have been writing lately of the unpleasant tendency in our society (fostered almost entirely by the Left) to REQUIRE all people be “safe” all the time, in everything.
- What you eat.
- You can’t eat things that are bad from you. Outlaw sugary drinks. Tax alcohol and tobacco. Mandate nutrition information.
- What you see.
- You can’t see a statue. You can’t see a flag. You can’t watch a video someone else doesn’t agree with. You can’t view a sign that offends someone.
- What you hear.
- Hearing hateful or stupid people is discouraged and outlawed. De-platform those whose opinions are thought to be bad. Shut down campus discourse at a lecture. People cannot have their feelings hurt, no matter if what hurts them is the truth.
- What you do.
- Don’t drive without a seatbelt. Wear a helmet. Ban monkey bars. Make safety regulations so onerous that products become so expensive people won’t buy or use them.
It is all interrelated.
But most of all, it becomes a Manichean choice between accepting that WE as humans control EVERYTHING that happens to us, and accepting that Nature (God) has a hand it it.
This is a most difficult conflict for Leftists who believe Man is God, and that everything can be controlled by our hand.