One of the founders of the United States of America, Benjamin Franklin, is credited with the following saying:
Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
Some Americans rail at any government mandate to wear masks during the current Covid-19 pandemic, or to limit their congregation with others, as unconstitutional impairments of their civil liberties. Those contrarians enthusiastically exalt the sentiment of Franklin’s aphorism. But Ambassador Franklin was a learned and nuanced citizen. He was an adherent of Rousseau’s Social Contract, advocating the form of government that best affirms the individual freedom of all its citizens with certain constraints inherent to a complex, modern, civil society. Constraints like mandates to wear masks and to respect “social distancing” standards during a pandemic.
What are, and what are not, “essential” liberties are at the heart of America’s political divisions these days, but we do not need to exacerbate those divisions by misapplication of the libertarian ideals of our founding fathers. I am willing to discuss whether there can be any lawful constraint on religious or political gatherings. I am not willing to countenance disregard of basic social hygiene norms.