For all its inconveniences, I have found that social distancing has brought a grand silver lining in that I have had quite a while in a much less hectic environment than campus to do some self-reflection over the events that have transpired during my first year of college. While the primary focus here will be my thoughts regarding my three chosen Advocacy Projects, Luke Maloney’s Love your Enemies, Colin Flanagan’s Libertarianism in the Face of a Global Pandemic, and Alyssa Painter’s Growth vs. Fixed Mindset, I include the former introduction because my own state of introspection will likely provide the lens through which I view these essays.

Much of my internal thoughts have been regarding the nature of the individual and their role in life. I believe that the ultimate role of government is to maintain the minimum order such that each individual may pursue their own path in life without having the wills of others forced upon them. Here, the ideas of Libertarianism in the Face of a Global Pandemic come into play. The main point behind Flanagan’s essay is that it is imperative to true libertarian ideology to obey government orders to remain home instead of protesting and risking to spread the disease further. Broadly, the vital point being made here when interpreted in an individualistic context is that the government is fulfilling its job exactly as outlined at the top of this paragraph; it is maintaining a degree of order and protecting public health whilst not stooping to the point of authoritarian rule.

The same problem of individuals overlooking the equal rights of others exists in a much larger context than government. Maloney’s Love your Enemies primarily addresses how quick we are to dismiss others and the views because of fallacious evidence. The problem here I believe is that, while we are all concerned with our own individual, we fail to realize how humans are codependent on one another. This, coupled with the lack of accountability brought forth by the Internet, has caused such disrespect to become rampant to the point where it even occurs in person.

While this seems like a problem of the collective mass of people that inhabit the States, ultimately this boils down to the individual level. One’s own negative outlook and cynicism could very well be caused by a restrictive mindset. Painter’s Growth vs. Fixed Mindset addresses the pitfalls of such a mindset and the potential benefits of adopting a growth-oriented mindset. One of the big difficulties I’ve faced through my academic career is that I too had a fixed mindset. I see now that to better oneself as a human being one must swallow their pride and commit to a growth mindset by accepting criticism and a lack of true perfection.