The Corner

Politics & Policy

How the Covid Mania Has Damaged the Culture of Liberty

The Statue of Liberty stands in the harbor in New York, December 20, 2021. (Andrew Kelly/Reuters)

Brendan O’Neill has an insightful essay on Spiked in which he decries the erosion of liberty we’ve experienced as a result of the stupendous overreaction to Covid.

A slice:

But a more injurious if sometimes intangible process was taking place alongside this temporary unwinding of our rights. The culture of freedom was undermined. The individual self-confidence and social trust that freedom depends upon, which freedom cannot exist without, was pummelled, day in, day out. We were educated to distrust others, to distrust ourselves.

Right. Just think of how Joe Biden scoffed at fellow Americans who believe that they’re entitled to the freedom to make up their own minds about getting a Covid vaccine. Liberty used to be the default position in this country, but among many people now, the default is obedience to the state.

Hat tip: Don Boudreaux.

George Leef is the the director of editorial content at the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal. He is the author of The Awakening of Jennifer Van Arsdale: A Political Fable for Our Time.
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