[Global Column] COVID-19 and the Social Reconstruction of Freedom

It has already been two years since COVID-19 swept across the globe. Expectations and desires for various everyday activities that were once taken for granted are growing stronger. However, with the recent spread of the Omicron variant, it remains uncertain when social distancing measures will be lifted and daily life can be restored. The end of 2021 must still be spent under strengthened social distancing measures. Therefore, although it has been a continuously debated topic since the outbreak of COVID-19, it has become inevitable to discuss the changes that COVID-19 will bring about in the future as we close out 2021.

An important aspect of the changes COVID-19 will bring is not the physical effects caused by social distancing, but the conceptual effects. Currently, the negative impacts of COVID-19 are physical effects. Although it is still difficult to predict the end, COVID-19 will eventually come to an end. In that case, the physical effects caused by COVID-19 are more temporary than permanent. In contrast, the social concepts formed due to COVID-19 will continue to influence society even after the pandemic ends. Therefore, what we need to focus on is how the social conceptual system will be newly reorganized because of COVID-19.

Above all, the most important point is the impact COVID-19 will have on liberalism. Despite various ups and downs, the 20th century can be called the era of liberalism. The 21st century began as an extension of the liberal era. However, COVID-19 has increased awareness of the risks that the spread of liberalism might bring.

First, in the context of COVID-19, individuals’ free activities can pose social threats. To prevent such threats, social distancing measures that restrict personal freedom are being implemented worldwide. Due to this experience, personal freedom in the future will be regarded not as an absolute value but as a relative value that can be limited and controlled to eliminate social threats.

On an international level, liberalism will also take on new meanings. The international spread of liberalism proceeded under the name of globalization. Until the outbreak of COVID-19, globalization was not only an unstoppable trend but also a value to be pursued. In other words, globalization was both a reality and a goal. However, COVID-19 has made it clear that globalization has the negative effect of spreading social threats internationally. How to protect society from external threats that globalization may cause will become an important issue. Globalization is also being viewed as an agenda that must be limited and controlled.

Due to COVID-19, the two core elements of liberalism?personal freedom and globalization?will no longer maintain their inviolable status. However, it is not possible to allow the principles of liberalism, which have played a dominant role as fundamental values in society, to be indefinitely damaged. Therefore, it is necessary to reconstruct a new social conceptual system that can respond to social threats without abandoning the principles of liberalism. This goes beyond the simple issue of how far domestic and international freedoms can be limited and controlled; it raises the need to redefine what kind of freedom we desire. In other words, COVID-19 demands a social reconstruction of freedom.

Jae-Hwan Jeong, Professor, Department of International Relations, Ulsan University

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.