Freedom and Masks

A Struggle Over Freedom in Our Country

Today, in our country, a struggle is going on between those who believe that we should require people to wear masks in public to slow the spread of the coronavirus and those who believe that the requirement to wear masks is an infringement on individual freedom. In this struggle, the two groups talk past each other. Neither side understands what the other is saying. To those who favor requiring people to wear masks, the advantages of doing so are obvious, and the opposing argument seems stupid or insane. Those who oppose the requirement cannot understand how anyone could favor such an intrusion on a free person’s right to live as he/she chooses.

Freedom Has Two Meanings

To see what is at stake here, we need to dig more deeply into the idea of freedom. “Freedom” has two, different meanings.  Sometimes, we use “freedom” to mean “freedom from authority.”  I am free in this sense if I may do what I choose without restraint from rules or bosses. Freedom in this sense is equivalent to autonomy.


A second meaning of freedom refers to capability. I have this sort of freedom if I can really do what I want to do.  To understand what this means, consider President Roosevelt’s famous “four freedoms.” The first two (freedom of speech and freedom of religion) clearly refer to freedom in the sense of autonomy, but the second two (freedom from want and freedom from fear) are different. If I am to be free from want, I must not only be autonomous, I must also have at my disposal the means of procuring sufficient food, clothing, shelter and so forth. Freedom in this sense includes capability.

We Must Sometimes Choose

Sometimes, the two kinds of freedom conflict, and we have to choose between them. Sometimes, increasing our capability requires us to act together as a group, and in order to act effectively, we must submit to the authority of the group. We must give up some autonomy in order to enjoy an increase in our capability. The most extreme example of this is the military. In the movie, A Few Good Men, there is a scene in which Col. Jessup is asked whether marines always follow orders, and he answers, “We follow orders, son. We follow orders, or people die. It’s that simple.”


Less extreme examples are all around us. For example, those of us who live in cities give up the right to use septic tanks because the city sewage system makes us capable of avoiding water-borne diseases like cholera, typhoid and dysentery. The key idea is that we give up autonomy in order to acquire capability. We submit to the authority of the group because we get something in return. Otherwise, the group’s assertion of power over us would be tyranny, and finding the right balance between autonomy and capability is and has always been at the heart of American politics.

The Second Meaning of Freedom Has Been Lost in Our Political Discussion

Unfortunately, the discussion of freedom in the United States has come to be dominated entirely by the first meaning of freedom.  In this discussion, the question of freedom has come to be always and only a question of autonomy.  Capability has been excluded completely by the way that the discussion of freedom is framed. We can see this not only in politics but also in popular culture. George Strait’s song, “Amarillo by Morning” gives us an example. It is about a rodeo cowboy who is on his was to Amarillo to complete in a rodeo. The cowboy says,

Amarillo by morning, up from San Antone
Everything that I've got, is just what I've got on
I ain't got a dime, but what I got is mine
I ain't rich, but Lord I'm free
Amarillo by morning, Amarillo's where I'll be
Amarillo by morning, Amarillo's where I'll be

The cowboy loves his autonomy, and he believes it makes him free. This framing favors the political right because it can always be used to oppose any government policy that infringes on the autonomy of individuals. We have seen this framing used in the debate over the requirement for every individual to have health insurance, and we on the left have been unable to respond effectively because we have failed to make capability an important part of the discussion of freedom. 

Masks and Freedom

This brings us back to the issue of masks. Requiring people to wear masks does infringe on their autonomy but it increases all of our capability. By submitting to the authority of the group, we increase our freedom from disease, and since, the disease in question can kill us, the trade-off seems reasonable.  If we are to have sensible, political discussions in our country, we must reframe the discussion of freedom. We cannot allow the idea of freedom to be limited to autonomy. We must insist that the meaning of freedom is broader than that. We must insist that for us to be truly free, we must be capable as well as autonomous.