How to talk about re-opening - Granite Grok

How to talk about re-opening

Note that the discussion about how to ‘re-open the economy’ is happening almost entirely in the arena of whether some contemplated loosening of restrictions will be ‘good for us’ or ‘bad for us’.  What do the numbers say? Whose numbers? When will we feel safe enough to let people have some of their rights back? Which ones? To what extent?

This, of course, is a perspective that sees liberty as a means to some other end: safety, prosperity, comfort, ‘public health’, or whatever.

But if liberty is a means to some other end, and if enough other people think there is a better means to that end, then liberty — and rights — are just conveniences.

On the other hand, if liberty is an end in itself, then any attempt to justify it on the basis of something else (in particular, whether some statistic reaches some value) is absurd.

So the first question to ask yourself is: Do you see liberty as a means to some other end, or as an end in itself? And then ask that of anyone you want to discuss this with. Because if your answers to that question are different, you’re going to be talking past, rather than with, each other.

Also, note that if those people who see liberty as a means, rather than as an end, can keep the discussion framed in their terms, they’ve already won…  and liberty is already lost.

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