Tyrannizing the Common Good: Uses and Abuses in an Age of Disintegration

As we navigate year two of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments continue to implement new mandates and lockdown measures. Throughout the pandemic, defenders of these measures have often argued that they’re necessary to protect the common good of our communities. In response, many opponents charge that the common good is used as a cover to attack individual liberty, casting doubt on whether a notion of the common good should guide our politics at all. In light of this debate, how do we ensure a proper understanding of the common good? And what does that look like in the era of COVID-19?

Join The American Conservative and the Catholic Information Center as we discuss the nature of the common good, its place in our politics, and how it relates to our COVID-19 response.

About the Speakers

Emile Doak is the executive director of The American Conservative. He is a graduate of Georgetown University, where he studied political philosophy and theology, and previously worked in education before returning to the field of his studies.

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Dr. Chad Pecknold received his PhD from the University of Cambridge (UK) and since 2008 he has been a Professor of Historical & Systematic Theology in the School of Theology at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. He teaches in the areas of fundamental theology, Christian anthropology, and political theology.

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Timothy P. Carney has for more than 20 years been a columnist, author, and editor in Washington, D.C. He is the senior columnist for the Washington Examiner and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

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Posted on November 30, 2021

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