Member-only story
Pandemic
What Did We Learn About Freedom During This Pandemic?
Freedom in a democracy is subject to the freedom of one’s fellow citizens.[1] In Eleanor Roosevelt’s words, “We recognize, of course, that all those who enjoy freedom must learn self-discipline — not discipline imposed by the state but discipline imposed by themselves for the sake of the rights of other human beings.” In short, we understood the limits of freedom and the consequences that follow from being insensible and unconscientious in handling it.
History is in the making, and as we live through this historical moment, I realized that the crisis of 2020 left a deep imprint on what we do and how we do it, even on how we perceive our rights and freedoms. Our awareness about freedom and choices got sharpened during this time. We figured out how our personal choices are dominated by everything around us and are not absolute and unqualified. Our freedom is relative and not wholly independent — independent of how it could adversely affect others.
As much as an individual’s freedom is central to addressing deprivations that crises cause, it is important to recall that freedom is also a social commitment, failing of which can make substantive freedom of individual agency rather hostile towards the effectiveness of aggregate freedom of all. [2]
In his commendable…
