The debates about individual and collective rights to me begin in the wrong place. Like that joke about being…

The debates about individual and collective rights to me begin in the wrong place. Like that joke about being given directions, 'well I wouldn't start from here'. All the talk about 'balancing' the two, or prioritising one over the other, assume the same framework. Short 🧵/1 https://t.co/dDCPrhNqBe

I'll borrow this image from Cigna as a tool. A person sitting alone in their own home. In their 'personal'/individual space. The collective space of society is outside. But look at that room. Air conditioner possibly made in Asia, furniture might be Scandinavian,.../2 https://t.co/4aQS2pfX9O

...paint comes from a multi-national paint company, with raw materials and IP drawn from across the globe. Etc. Power is wired in from the grid, water from a local reticulation system, food carried in from a supermarket, as are books, prints and other consumer goods. /3 https://t.co/pu2yj8fHIx

The point being, where do you draw a line here between individual and collective? The house and everything in it was likely built by others, its operation, maintenance and security relies upon others, the land it's on is likely occupied by (collective) legal title. /4 https://t.co/zgg3dLghOS

I don't support either side of the individual vs collective debates, because I think the divide itself is a fiction. For example I don't believe those arguing for 'freedom' from public health measures with Covid live in a jungle alone somewhere. /5 https://t.co/ifkGOPj1gm

Their personal freedoms are collectively generated, just as the collective infrastructure inside which they live is individually shaped - we all decorate our houses differently, have different forms of heating etc. I don't understand how debates about Covid, for example,.../6 https://t.co/W8Z15w7dWJ

...where we're asked to 'balance' individual freedoms with collective issues aren't seen as hilarious. What viruses show brilliantly is that what you do collectively and individually are woven from the same cloth. My individual behaviour could infect an entire neighbourhood. /7 https://t.co/rFBMujj5oa

Collective 'mandates' will shape my individual behaviour, but also (importantly) offer me freedoms I wouldn't have without them. That air conditioner and the personal comfort it provides wouldn't work without the grid. /8

I think it's time to ditch this boring individual/collective binary, which doesn't even refer to anything real. All our collective life is individual, all individual life collective. There's no binary here. /end