Public health paradoxes. Where we use ‘personal choice’ in banking, or supermarkets etc., despite the…

Public health paradoxes. Where we use ‘personal choice’ in banking, or supermarkets etc., despite the ideology of choice everything coagulates into a handful of monopolies. Give people ‘freedom’ and they *always* reinstate hierarchy. Why? /1 #covid19aus https://t.co/5HxzyiNGhG

Because the default state of society is social interaction. And social interaction is created by imitation, by status. We all look for leadership, for a hierarchy of value in which to assess the decisions confronting us. The idea of a free-floating individual making choices…/2

…is a fantasy. The only place it exists is that persecuted, bullied outsider on the fringe of groups. And even that person’s life is dominated by exclusion from that same social group. Public health has to be led, like anything we do in society. If it’s not led, people will…/3

…find some other person to lead them. Influencers, experts with libertarian views, friends, colleagues etc. Governments who wash their hands of Covid and delegate it to the public to solve are not giving the public freedom, they’re leading an ignoring of the problem. /4

We’re not seeing a shift to personal responsibility for Covid, we’re seeing the replacement of a single, coordinated public health response with tribal warfare between competing social groups. Just as the old nationalised CommBank became 4 mega banks with ‘loyal customers’. /end