Liberty and solidarity during the pandemic

Abstract

The Covid-19 outbreak has given rise to a heated debate about liberty and freedom over the last two years. Those opposing vaccines, mask-wearing and lockdown measures argue that freedom is a personal right. This article sets out to deconstruct this individualistic concept of freedom, instead holding up a paradigmatic mirror of solidarity. Drawing on Charles Darwin and Karl Marx, it will reveal that the understanding of freedom as purported by anti-vax and anti-green-pass proponents is a narcissistic-adolescent approach that does not allow for individuals to take full responsibility for their behaviour. An analysis will investigate the rhetoric of demagogues declaring themselves the defenders of freedom. Further analysis will examine the various anxieties that have challenged our abilities, capabilities and visions of a future as individuals and as a society since the beginning of the pandemic. We might not know what tomorrow will bring, who we will be in the face of ongoing developments, but what is certain is that we can only regain our freedom and liberty if we accept certain limitations.