(no subject)

“I bow before the authority of [specialists] because it is imposed upon me by my own reason. I am conscious of my inability to grasp, in all its details and positive developments, any very large portion of human knowledge. The greatest intelligence would not be equal to a comprehension of the whole. Thence results, for science as well as for industry, the necessity of the division and association of labor. I receive and I give-such is human life. Each directs and is directed in his turn. Therefore there is no fixed and constant authority, but a continual exchange of mutual, temporary, and, above all, voluntary authority and subordination.”

–Mikhail Bakunin

http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/bakunin/godandstate/godandstate_ch1.html

If epidemiologists say social distancing will buy time and save lives, why shouldn’t I trust them?

I see people dismiss social distancing as “meekly following orders”– but if meekly following expert advice, during this emergency, regardless of orders, will save other people’s lives, why not?