Ordered Liberty

Instructions
Coming on top of lockdowns, enforced quarantines, and other liberty-reducing measures to deal with COVID-19, some Americans found the Spring/Summer 2020 to be a scary time, rife with incipient revolution and uncontrolled radical change.  Others saw good things happening, as they fervently welcome fundamental, transformational change in American society, no matter how it is brought about. Still others want major change, but change achieved in a nonviolent, essentially consensual and nonthreatening way. In a 1400-1700 word essay, discuss the concept of ordered liberty, i.e., the idea that stable societies strike a balance between being a society of order and a society of liberty.  Apply to these major issues of 2020 the assumptions and concepts of Hobbes and Locke, as well as other approaches, such as the “Order-Disorder Continuum”.

Grading Criteria

Explain all the basic concepts implicit or explicit in the assignment
Apply these concepts to an ethical dilemma
Use appropriate vocabulary