The Cult of Personal Autonomy

We live in an age divided. This is partly an American story about Donald Trump and never-Trumpers, about red states and blue states. It is also about polarized views on signature issues like transgender rights or abortion where what you believe, on one side or another, defines who you are as a person. There are right answers and wrong answers, but it depends on who is asking the question.

Despite this polarization, it’s striking that there are echoes across the chasm, instances where the right and the left sound as if they are shouting the same slogans. The right attacks government regulations that impede businesses or stifle entrepreneurship. It complains of excessive bureaucracy, and overly onerous environmental or labour regulations, or the need for Indigenous consultation. The left attacks this kind of thinking as neoliberal—as the kind of individualistic corporate-serving rhetoric that damages our collective life as citizens.

Yet the left’s own...