MAY 19, 2020 – This morning I saw the CNN headline, “America’s Covid-19 response is the most American thing ever.” The image featured a woman waving a large American flag, seated atop a parked jeep. The sub-headline read, “The country’s conflicting behavior in the face of coronavirus is a symptom of a national value that prizes free will over all else.”
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.
In this instance, CNN hits the proverbial nail squarely on the head. For all of our conformity, for all of our rules and regulations and “government interference” in our lives, we Americans are acculturated to believing that no one ought to tell us what to do. “Don’t Tread on Me!” is as alive and well today as it was in our “Revolutionary” period.
If ever there were a time when the “Give me liberty or give me death!” slogan would prove costly, now would be that time, but that conclusion works only among us Americans who no longer embrace the slogan! Even in the face of a killer virus, we see many people who wave the flag in the name of “no one’s gonna tell me what to do.”
Freedom is a paradox. One person’s freedom is another person’s repression—or deadly disease. Back in the day, many people were pretty much free and clear of “government.” This meant they were free and clear to assume the risks of the wilderness—of the elements, the wild animals, and the indigenous peoples retaliating against infringement on their freedoms. And of course, we have the original sin of American history . . . slavery, in many cases perpetrated by people who jealously guarded their own freedom to do whatever the hell they pleased. “Don’t Tread on Me!” and “Give me liberty or give me death!”? I’m not sure how Indians or black slaves figured in those signature slogans of American lore.
In our present circumstances, how do we balance the “Don’t Tread on Me!” mantra of one freedom-seeker with the “Don’t Make Me Sick!” requirement of another?
Or in other contexts, how do we balance an airline’s need to make a profit (its raison d’être) with the need of every customer to survive each and every flight? Ditto restaurants, drug manufacturers, and their customers and so on. In a complex society, making freedom of choice paramount is unrealistic. Sure, an individual theoretically has a choice not to eat, not to travel, not to medicate a malady, not to associate with other human beings, and so on, but for many generations, total self-reliance and self-isolation have simply not been realistic options, absent Robinson Crusoe-like “freedom” on a deserted island.
In coming months, if “Don’t Tread on Me!” gains ascendancy over all countervailing necessity, America will learn the full cost of “freedom.” At risk, among other things, will be our . . . freedom to survive and prosper, individually and collectively.
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© 2020 by Eric Nilsson
