President Biden is taking concerted action to increase the number of Americans who are vaccinated. It looks like public opinion favors this move, but he is being criticized by a small but highly vocal minority saying that his actions are unconstitutional and against individual liberty.
It is long established law in the US that the government has the authority to mandate actions, including vaccinations, to achieve public health goals. This power lies mostly with the states, under the “police power,” the state’s responsibility to protect the “health, safety, welfare and morals” of the community. This is why the President is only encouraging governors to act, since he does not have the power to force them to do so. But the federal government does have the power to control the conditions of its own employees, and OSHA has the power to regulate health and safety in the workplace. These actions will likely be challenged in court, but unless the courts decide to change more than a century of strong, legal public health protections, the President’s actions should be upheld.
But what of that small and noisy minority who insist that this is a violation of their personal liberty? I think the key is to ask about the context of liberty. We have for a very long time treated liberty as something that is separate from the community. The two are presented as opposing positions, inevitably at odds. This has become so pronounced over the last forty year that I have taken to calling this a “fetishization” of individual liberty.
I think this view, that liberty is somehow removed from community, is not useful or accurate. Individual liberty does not exist without a community that supports individual members in their individual choices. What keeps us from being a battle-royal of every individual against every other individual is the presence of an overarching community that provides a safe and respected place for individual action. I believe there is no society of individuals that exists without a healthy community. I said this in a tweet a couple of months ago:
"Freedom is not separate from the needs of the community. It is a right that is protected by, empowered by the community. Individuals enjoying their freedom must respect the community that protects it. A healthy community guarantees freedom, within limits of the community's needs."
Some people say that the individual is the basic unit of analysis within a society. But this makes little sense in arranging the affairs of social animals such as humans. Who keeps the commons open to individual thought and actions? I think we were all members of a community before we ever realized that we were individuals. There is no history of individual humans wandering alone in the grasses or forests fending for himself or herself. Our history starts with hearths, kinship, mutual protection and, most of all, caring for “the other.” Going off on one’s own only happens after the community raises you to the point of being ready to try that. And it is probably waiting behind you when you return, helping you in bad times or sharing in your successes.
We are all inevitably embedded in community, either one present in our lives today or one that operated in the past to support our families and allowed us to get to the point of “striking out on our own.” If we perpetuate the illusion that all of our successes are due only to our own efforts, we will neglect the communities that are just as responsible as we are for our achievements. And not being vaccinated and not wearing masks are exactly that neglect.
