Paternalism part 2

I don’t think it would be a wild statement to say that we all make good and bad choices. Those choices have an impact on ourselves and those around us. With paternalism, it has me considering when those bad choices impact people around them and the government intervenes with compulsory vaccination and laws, is it a toxic form of paternalism or just collective action? Furthermore, when you work hard to gain expertise on a subject and you want to share and help others, is it always paternalism to share your knowledge?

Both of these examples made me consider the following three aspects of paternalism:

• those holding power assume they are qualified to (and entitled to) define standards and the one right way as well as make decisions for and in the interests of those without power
• those holding power assume they are qualified to (and entitled to) define standards and the one right way as well as make decisions for and in the interests of those without power
• those holding power often don’t think it is important or necessary to understand the viewpoint or experience of those for whom they are making decisions, often labeling those for whom they are making decisions as unqualified intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, or physically

Power seems to be a central thing that tips paternalism into negative territory. You don’t typically see people protesting against compulsory education. You don’t typically see people protesting against rules around wearing clothes in public. There are plenty of laws and rules that exist without protest from the majority of people. When people disagree or feel out of control of the decisions being made you see major resistance.

The following antidotes to paternalism seem to help mitigate those negative impacts from paternalism:

• make sure that everyone knows and understands the decision-making hierarchy in the community and/or organization (transparency)
• avoid making decisions in the absence of those most affected by those decisions or, said more proactively, always include those most affected in the brainstorming and decision-making
• support people at all levels of power to understand how power operates, their level of power, what holding power responsibly looks like, and how to collectively resist and heal from internalized tendencies to hoard and defend power