by Kit Knightly
April 24, 2025 - “Personal beliefs do not supersede the public good, and vaccination is a public good.”
The above quote - taken from a headline in the Globe and Mail - is wrong. It is wrong both in general and specifically.
It doesn’t matter what “personal beliefs” are being referred to, and it doesn’t matter which particular “public good” is being protected, it is wrong.
It is wrong because “personal belief” is a placeholder phrase for “individual liberty”, and “public good” for compelled action.
In this instance, it is talking about vaccination and religious freedom - these causes are often linked and used to sell decreased individual liberty as “common sense” to the “sensible”
agnostic majority - but vaccination could represent any behavior, and religion any thought or opinion.
Good sense dictates and history demonstrates that anyone promoting “the public good” at the expense of individual liberty is steering society toward tyranny.
If you don’t believe me, simply observe the language used in this kind of editorial.
Respecting religious freedom is important, but it has to be balanced against other rights.
Freedom of religion was never meant to exempt people from societal obligations… we cannot allow those with anti-science beliefs to harm others.
The state cannot tell you what to think, but it can tell you what to do. Especially when it is for the greater good.
That last one is particularly worrying.
When the standard of freedom is “you can think what you like provided you do as you are told”, we really are in dark times.
