In college, this phrase was a shared code among my friends. Anyone applying to Simon’s Rock Early College had to write an essay about the wise restraints that make men free (yes, this was a long time ago). We would casually toss it into conversation and know that our audience was in on the joke.
Even if we were being sarcastic, we had at minimum been introduced to the concept of ethical thinking. Where does that take place nowadays? Do young people get that exposure in school? Does the Common Core teach ethics?
I started asking these questions while working on an article for Psychology Today about ethics in the time of coronavirus. It’s a case study about the unforgiving light cast by the pandemic on the disintegrating social contract in the United States. The virus is forcing us to admit that contract has always more aspiration than reality. Our country does not have a shared understanding that with freedom comes responsibility to one another.
What can we do about it? The answer is that we have to keep making the case, on a daily basis, on behalf of ethics. If you feel we shouldn’t have to be doing this in the year 2020, I agree!