{"id":25567,"date":"2021-12-13T12:53:19","date_gmt":"2021-12-13T20:53:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/?p=25567"},"modified":"2021-12-13T12:53:19","modified_gmt":"2021-12-13T20:53:19","slug":"weve-lost-the-ideal-of-the-common-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2021\/12\/13\/weve-lost-the-ideal-of-the-common-good\/","title":{"rendered":"We\u2019ve Lost the Ideal of the Common Good"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:1564,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.nytimes.com\\\/2021\\\/12\\\/03\\\/opinion\\\/vaccine-hesitancy-covid.html&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20251123154306\\\/https:\\\/\\\/www.nytimes.com\\\/2021\\\/12\\\/03\\\/opinion\\\/vaccine-hesitancy-covid.html&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-02 21:06:43&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-03 06:20:15&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-14 17:50:06&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403}],&quot;broken&quot;:true,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-14 17:50:06&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>From the New York Times: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/12\/03\/opinion\/vaccine-hesitancy-covid.html\" title=\"Opinion | Vaccine Hesitancy Is About Trust and Class - The New York Times\">Vaccine Hesitancy Is About Trust and Class<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n  &#8230;people who reject vaccines are not necessarily less scientifically literate or less well-informed than those who don\u2019t. Instead, hesitancy reflects a transformation of our core beliefs about what we owe one another.<\/p>\n<p>  Over the past four decades, governments have slashed budgets and privatized basic services. This has two important consequences for public health. First, people are unlikely to trust institutions that do little for them. And second, public health is no longer viewed as a collective endeavor, based on the principle of social solidarity and mutual obligation. People are conditioned to believe they\u2019re on their own and responsible only for themselves. That means an important source of vaccine hesitancy is the erosion of the idea of a common good.<\/p>\n<p>  Americans began thinking about health care decisions this way only recently; during the 1950s polio campaigns, for example, most people saw vaccination as a civic duty. But as the public purse shrunk in the 1980s, politicians insisted that it\u2019s no longer the government\u2019s job to ensure people\u2019s well-being; instead, Americans were to be responsible only for themselves and their own bodies. Entire industries, such as self-help and health foods, have sprung up on the principle that the key to good health lies in individuals making the right choices.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the New York Times: Vaccine Hesitancy Is About Trust and Class: &#8230;people who reject vaccines are not necessarily less scientifically literate or less well-informed than those who don\u2019t. Instead, hesitancy reflects a transformation of our core beliefs about what we owe one another. Over the past four decades, governments have slashed budgets and privatized &#8230; <a title=\"We\u2019ve Lost the Ideal of the Common Good\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2021\/12\/13\/weve-lost-the-ideal-of-the-common-good\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about We\u2019ve Lost the Ideal of the Common Good\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2028],"tags":[3955,3764],"class_list":["post-25567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links","tag-covid","tag-pandemic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25567\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}