Eric in Ohio’s Reviews > On Freedom > Status Update

“We [Zelensky & Snyder] talked about how, over time, beginning in youth, an accumulation of decisions makes us who we are. Then a moment comes when we do what we must because of what we have chosen to become. An unfree person can always try to run. But sometimes a free person has to stay. Free will is character.

Staying
“Without ideals, it is impossible to be a realist. If you forget about freedom, you misunderstand the world and change it for the worse.” Initial reaction to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in Feb 2022 clarifies the point.
Zelenskyi stayed (CW was he’d flee). Day 2, posted video, spoke truth to power. “Indeed, it was what he was doing with his body - staying - that was the truth.”

“A provocation works when a less powerful entity turns a more powerful actor against itself. The attack of 9/11 was one of the most successful provocations of all time”
“After 9/11, Americans were told that the attackers ‘hate freedom,’ but our response suggested we misunderstood it. The ostensible exchange of freedom for security meant less of each. Surveillance became normal.”

“Defining freedom is a different sort of ambition from defending it. Interrogate my former self; I interrogate others; and others interrogate me. The method is part of the answer: there may be truth about freedom, but we will not get it in isolation or by deduction. Freedom is positive; getting words around it, like living it, is an act of creation.”

Five forms of freedom create world where people act on values:
Sovereignty - learned capacity to make choices
Unpredictability -power to adapt physical regularities to personal purposes
Mobility
Factuality
Solidarity - recognition that freedom is for everyone

Preface, p. xv:
“Freedom is about knowing what we value and bringing it to life. So it depends on what we can do - and that, in turn, depends on others, people we know and people we don’t.”