Freedom fetish

To the Editor:

Like many parts of our nation that see vaccine and mask mandates as an assault on our freedom to choose, our county has its share of those people who have rejected rational thinking. Thus, we have a group at Courthouse Square in Sonora, bearing American flags, signage about their “rights,” and more speeches rejecting mandates.

Facts don't matter to those whose beliefs border on a fetish. An article by John Crisp of the Tribune News Service recently explored this concept. He states, “A fetish is a fixation that elevates to the level of obsession a part above all other elements of a whole. A `freedom fetish' privileges our right to do as we please above all else.

“The obsession with freedom can become so powerful that it blinds us to other equally important principles essential to society and our well-being: a sense of mutual responsibility, an obligation to the law, the need to relinquish some liberties in order to enjoy others, the legitimacy of science, our communal health, our individual health.

“Our obsession with freedom can be so powerful that we're easily beguiled by politicians who assert that our freedoms are under constant threat of being taken away. Even if they're not. They use this fear for their political advantage. In fact, these days the opposite of freedom isn't tyranny. It's fear.”

I've read accounts from those whose medical needs are postponed by hospitals that are grappling with critical COVID cases that are taking up available beds.

Some of the same people who cry out for freedom to reject health mandates, have no tears for those who suffer COVID or die.

Obsession or fetish can and does overrule one's humanity. Society requires rules that benefit the whole of society. Without those rules, society will become uncivilized and further divided. Wayne Kirkbride

Twain Harte