Nearly everyone agrees that freedom is essential. But what exactly is it? How do we
promote it?
Yale professor Timothy Snyder has thought about these questions more than anyone
else I’ve read in years. Well known for his work on the opposite of freedom, like his
2017 book On Tyranny, Snyder has been to many of the places wrecked by tyrants like
Hitler and Stalin. I began reading his work Bloodlands about eastern Europe and had to
put it down: simply too horrible.
In On Freedom, Snyder tackles the notion that freedom is simply the absence of oppression head on. No, he powerfully argues: freedom is something positive, not merely the lack of tyranny. Snyder backs up this claim at length throughout his book, illustrating five ingredients of freedom, why they matter, and how we can develop them in society. Freedom is based on virtues which we are called to live up to and bring to life.
Snyder’s five components of freedom, each of which he examines carefully, are
sovereignty, unpredictability, mobility, factuality, and solidarity. Each of them can be
understood at both a basic and a deeper level.
Sovereignty, which people first develop as children, is the power to make decisions and
take action. Its necessity to freedom is obvious.
I found unpredictability an unexpected but fascinating requirement. Snyder discusses
how algorithms try to pigeonhole us, anticipating our likes and actions. In a powerful
reference to Vaclav Havel’s famous work against communism, The Power of the
Powerless, Snyder explains how totalitarian regimes force us into predictability: step out
of line and you suffer the consequences. It reminds me of the fable about the emperor’s
new clothes. When someone has the courage to tell the truth, to point out that the
emperor is in fact naked, the whole totalitarian façade comes crashing down. We must
have that courage—to “live in truth,” as Havel wrote. We must defy what we are
“expected” to do and practice the virtues as best we can if we want to live in freedom.
Mobility means both the physical ability to travel freely, but also the social mobility so
esssential to the American Dream: to raise one’s status, to reach for a better life. There
are many ways societies restrict our mobility, and to that extent, we are not free.
Factuality struck me as particularly relevant in this “post-truth” age some claim we are
living in. If facts don’t exist, how convenient it is to feed people propaganda. Snyder
decries the atrophy of local journalism, advocating strong support for reporters who
uncover the truth in our communities. We must follow the truth wherever it leads if we
are to be free.
Solidarity is Snyder’s way of saying what Emma Lazarus wrote in the 19 th century:
“None of us are free until all of us are free.” He powerfully explains how limits on the
freedom of African Americans make white Americans and America as a whole less free.
But we can expand freedom by making it more available to everyone, as has sometimes
happened historically.
On Freedom takes a refreshing, sobering, clear-eyed stance on what is wrong in our
world today. Snyder names names, calling out political and social media leaders. But he
goes beyond diagnosing the problems to articulate thoughtful and sometimes original
solutions.
This is not an easy book. But I found it well worth the time. For anyone concerned about
where things are going in the world today, this book will provide both answers and hope. They are not easy answers, but they are realistic and doable. On Freedom is a book I expect to return to from time to time to tap into its wisdom and its recommendations, to help me along the path of freedom.
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