The overwhelming majority of people don't want to follow the social distancing norms of a lock down, even when they can. All the logic in the world says they should do it, and it's for their good and for the good of others. But THEY JUST DON'T WANT TO DO IT.
It's important to understand this. There's no point lamenting that too many people are landing up on a beach, or a market or a playground without the necessary precautions. We have to grasp the core of the problem clearly - it's not that they don't care. They don't want to care.
This is the paradox of our freedoms - we seek freedom from responsibility too. Not just in this situation, it's the same logic that makes people avoid helmets, dump their trash in the wrong places, choose fossil fuels, or a whole bunch of such things.
Democracies have to work out this tension between responsibility and freedom. To my mind, decentralisation is a part of the answer. The jigsaw puzzle of democracy can never be completed until we bring choices closer to people, and tie them closely to consequences.
A distant power is no power at all. It's quite easy to disregard the rules of the Central government, and considerably harder to disregard the rules of the apartment community. We complain that the latter is draconian. Perhaps all we mean is that it's asking too much of us !!
