What have our fellow citizens been learning from the ongoing and ever-evolving pandemic? And what should they be learning from it?
They have been learning, through constant lecturing by the mainstream media, lessons like:
It's the job of politicians to keep us healthy, and nothing is more important than that -- so it's perfectly reasonable and natural that politicians should be able to suspend our fundamental rights whenever they decide "better safe than sorry" -- or whenever they feel the need to look like they are "doing something", whether it makes sense or not.
Medical experts hired or endorsed by politicians know best how to manage complex businesses (everything from factories to restaurants) and our entire economy -- even though these experts generally know nothing about any of these businesses, business in general, or economics.
"Science" should be the basis of making complex policy decisions -- even though the kinds of science being relied on can at best give us information about only one aspect of a particular situation, and no actual scientist would ever claim that their discipline can answer subjective questions involving trading off different interests and values.
If something happens that causes people to lose their jobs and production of real goods and services to shut down, a good thing for government to do about it is throw trillions of dollars around -- even though that means borrowing trillions of dollars and it doesn't actually put anybody back to work.
Meanwhile, others have been learning different lessons. Because measures like vaccination and masks are being imposed on them by political forces, they have "learned" that these kinds of technology are tools of oppression. Some have even decided to make refusing to wear a mask or get vaccinated a symbol of independence. They are confusing two very different things -- being forced to use these things, which is a matter of rights, with the usefulness of the things themselves -- which is something that will vary from situation to situation.
These all are the wrong lessons.
Here are some lessons they should be learning instead:
They should be learning that in many cases politicians don't actually know what they are doing, and that even though they may have the benefit of expert advice the policies they end up announcing and enforcing often have other motivations.
They should be learning that what government does in a situation like this rarely matters as much as either the politicians or their opponents want you to believe. Those who hated Trump for other reasons were quick to blame him for the course of the pandemic in 2020 -- even though Biden proved to have no new or different solutions, and even though things ended up getting just as bad (and sometimes worse) in other countries where Trump was not calling the shots.
They should be learning that "emergency" measures that we are told we must accept on a temporary basis, for a span of weeks, can easily remain in effect for years, and that it is a lot easier to give up fundamental liberties than to get them back.
They should be learning that to the degree progress is being made the people who deserve our thanks are the scientists, medical professionals, and business people who are doing the actual work -- and it is to these kinds of people, not politicians and bureaucrats, that we should be looking for actual solutions to future problems.
They should be learning that while borrowing trillions of dollars and throwing it around may help some people in the short term, it's no way to manage an economy in the long term.
And, hopefully, some of our fellow citizens are learning some of these lessons from the current pandemic, and will be in a better position to apply these lessons when the next crisis, medical or otherwise, comes along.
But it's part of our job as Libertarians to help them understand the principles behind these lessons -- and to be ready to remind them the next time politicians try to use a crisis as an excuse to further limit our rights and further damage our economy.
Joe Dehn
County Chair