If there is only one book you are going to
read this year, make sure you choose On Freedom by Timothy Snyder.
His
book should be used in high schools to learn the concept of freedom; the
meaning of the word has been misused to empower tyrants, so this book is an
invaluable resource to bring clarity to the topic.
Tim Snyder delves deeply into the meaning of
freedom. As a historian he offers an introspective outlook with information and
facts. Unlike The Sixth Extinction, this book
is hard to put down because it is concise. It does not ramble.
The meaning of freedom in America has been distorted.
Snyder analyses this carefully. “In American English it came to mean little
more than the privilege of a few wealthy Americans not to pay taxes, the power
of a few oligarchs to shape the discourse, and the unequal application of
criminal law.”
Snyder emphasizes the
distinction between negative freedom and positive freedom.
The
concept of what he refers to as negative freedom is about the need to remove
something that does not allow freedom to materialize, and positive freedom is
about the right to thrive. In order to thrive, a healthy environment, education,
health, critical thinking skills and respect for human rights are necessary. Freedom
requires solidarity, social commitment, communication and introspection.
We need to look into the past to understand
the present. I think this has been the message of My Writing Life blog:
Awareness, Reflection, Inspiration. I agree with Timothy Snyder.
I will share this statement by Mr. Snyder:
“Knowledge of the past is a reservoir of power and self-liberation. The future
might flow down many channels, but its sources are in the past. Many things are
possible. When we know nothing about the past, we think anything is possible
but are quickly disillusioned. When we know something about the past, we know
about some things that might be possible, and we have a chance at realizing
them, a chance at freedom.”
As a
keen historian, he anticipates what the future possibilities may look like; understanding the past well sometimes helps him to make predictions. For example, he predicted that Russian forces would
invade Ukraine. He provides the facts that led him to believe so. For example, Tim
Snyder was aware of the fact that tyrant Vladimir Putin used Russian television
to promote coordinated propaganda against Ukraine, force-feeding people the
idea that Ukraine did not really exist and that Russians and Ukrainians were
one people. Tim Snyder predicted more than this, but I will let you read the
book to find out more…
Knowledge, intuition and observation combined with introspection can be
helpful to predict something. It is important to remember and integrate
information, but it is also necessary to pay attention. Attention has become
elusive to too many people, and the outcome of this situation is not a
positive one. There is a reflection on this that I wrote down to share with
you:
“We lose time by not focusing, by not encoding
moments from the flux. Simone Weil thought ‘the quantity of creative genius of
an epoch was measured by attention span. By her measure we are becoming
stupider. The twenty-first century is, let’s face it, very dumb.’”
Timothy Snyder awakens us to the fact that in America there is a need for an equal
right to vote for all citizens. However, this is not what happens:
“Citizens
who happen to live in Washington, D.C., which is more populous than Wyoming or
Vermont, are not allowed to elect representatives to Congress. Citizens who
live in Puerto Rico, which is more populous than twenty-one of the fifty
states, cannot vote for president. They elect a resident commissioner to
Congress, but that official has no vote. Americans should not be denied
representation by the accident of where they were born, or where they find a
job, or where they fall in love.”
When we look at the past, we learn that women
were excluded from the vote in the United States until the 1920s, and Black
people in the South until the 1960s.
“Today
American laws allow the richest to avoid paying taxes and to influence
elections (and then policy) by spending money. Such laws disenfranchise all
nonbillionaires by granting to the few electoral power not enjoyed by the many.
A country with oligarchical elections and voter suppression is not a land of
the free.”
On page 370 he makes a bold statement that
helps me to understand the underpinnings of this regime:
“Americans lose about 1 trillion dollars
every year to tax fraud and evasion by the very wealthy. Offshore tax
evaders should be given a year to come onshore or be prosecuted. Known
practices that serve oligarchical escapism should be banned. These include
mirror trades, anonymous real estate transactions, and limited partnerships
that hide true owners and beneficiaries.”
Senators are afraid to exercise their
freedom in America
How is freedom possible when you have senators
stating clearly that they are afraid to oppose the president’s orders? If you
don’t believe me, listen to Republican senator Lisa Murkowski expressing that“we are all afraid.”
If she is afraid, why did she vote
for him? Minions and sycophants will not make America great. Hatred, cruelty
and oppression will not make America free.
How can you call America the land of the free when not even the senators are free to disagree?
On June 14 two lawmakers and their spouses were shot. Melissa Hortman and her husband were shot to death, so how can we expect to be safe, when not even our Representatives are safe to live their lives under the current regime? Besides, nobody is safe when innocent people get abducted by strangers wearing masks.
We need to stay alert. If a tyrant in power persecutes and imprisons dissidents the way Putin does it in Russia, then their votes will not be counted.
It is
disheartening to see that seventy-five million voters supported a man who
follows Putin’s playbook. They voted for a man who thinks that he can take away
somebody’s citizenship because he or she disagrees with him. This is not
freedom. This is fascism. They voted for a man who promised to be a dictator on
day one. There is no patriotism in this cowardly act.
I am not going to delve into the concept of
freedom here because that is the role of Tim Snyder’s insightful book, but I
can offer a very simple clue that anybody should be able to understand. There
is no freedom when the Constitution is treated like toilet paper, or when a
person who is the closest friend of a sexual trafficker becomes president. Yet
there are forces that run deep in America to enable such a person to become
powerful. I noticed that sexism and social misogyny are not under Snyder’s radar
the way racism is. We need to expand the book. Mr. Snyder is concerned about
the increasing number of men incarcerated in prisons but he does not say enough
about gender violence and the need to address it.
I admit that I felt frustrated when he
mentioned that Ancient Greece was a “democracy”. A democracy does not have
slaves. A democracy does not suppress women’s votes, Mr. Snyder, but if we keep
repeating this lie, we will end up believing it, so, no, ancient Greece was not
a democracy.
I highly recommend On Freedom by Timothy Snyder. It can be a suitable choice for book-clubs.
I appreciate how Timothy Snyder integrates
science and history to explain basic concepts. Hopefully, his words will inspire
people to choose courage and solidarity amid the fear and uncertainty incited
by the forces of fascism, because the greatest treasure of a country is in the
bravery of the people standing up for justice and freedom; it is in the bravery
of the people standing up to the bullies, and I know that there are people who
are doing that, but we need to keep our voices alive in every way we can.
On
Freedom offers the guidance and knowledge to choose that kind of path. It sheds
light on the confusion and the falsehoods spread by the manipulation of the
truth. On Freedom reminds us that we are not isolated, that we are
interconnected in multiple ways and that there is no freedom without solidarity.
Read it, share it; let’s keep the discussions alive.
Here's an
interview about freedom with Tim Snyder:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVxuFLBOpvM
Last but not
least, keep yourself informed. Knowledge empowers us to become better citizens:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3Ww--fKH5g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNQo6BqD7hA
