The Problem of Freedom and Social Security in Conditions of Increased Threats to Population Health

Abstract

The article deals with the issue of the possibility and measure of freedom in the context of the need to ensure security during a pandemic. In the policy of countering the pandemic, rationality prevailed as the correspondence of the chosen goals and means. But since rationality is basically irrational, in different countries one can observe a situation where the security of the population is ensured at the expense of freedom, which, at the suggestion of the main subjects of security, is increasingly turning into a recognized necessity that destroys the essence of freedom. Hence arises the desire of a certain part of the population of different countries for "negative" freedom. This desire is also supported by the fact that the state does not attach much importance to "positive" freedom, which includes the formation of an (individual) security culture, responsibility to society for one's actions. To do this, the state must shift its focus from maintaining the monopoly right to ensure security to a dialogue with the population as an equal subject of security.