7/4/2023 0 Comments The road unfreedomSo what can the concerned citizen do about the decay in our public life? We must, Snyder says, keep digging for the facts and exposing falsehoods. In addition to the general malaise Snyder identifies, The Road to Unfreedom also points to human agency - in particular that of Vladimir Putin. Liberal democracy is being undermined from within, but not only from within. The latter do not see progress but an endless cycle of humiliation, death and rebirth that repeats itself. The former are like Marxism or faith in the triumph of the free market: They say that history is moving inexorably toward a clear end. Snyder makes a valuable distinction between the narratives of inevitability and those of eternity. Recent examples, found around the world, demonstrate both how important conventions and mutual respect are as a way of maintaining order and civility - and how easily and carelessly they can be smashed. The road to unfreedom, as Snyder sees it, is one that runs right over the Enlightenment faith in reason and the reasonableness of others - the very underpinning, that is, of our institutions and values.
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