Freedom is a collective practiceThe free Western world is urgently searching for new leadership as its former leader, the United States of America, sinks ever deeper into a quagmire of fascism. A few days ago, Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, delivered an impressive speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos in which he outlined the path that the remaining democratic nations must follow in order to preserve their political and economic autonomy, as well as their moral dignity and freedom.
"The middle powers must act together," Carney said, referring to Canada, the EU and countries like Japan, Brazil, Australia and South Korea, "because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu." Donald Trump was not mentioned by name in the speech, but it was clear to everyone that these remarks referred to him. Mark Carney is a man of action, not merely a talker like many of his European counterparts, and he was therefore met with considerable acclaim from his audience. He is clearly the kind of political leader that intelligent, freedom-minded people all over the globe are longing for in a rapidly changing world order.*1
Another form of leadership – this time in the historical and philosophical-ethical realm – is embodied by the American historian Timothy Snyder. He was among the first political refugees when Donald Trump came to power a year ago. From 2017 to 2025, he served as the Richard C. Levin Professor of History at Yale University, today he teaches at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto.*2
¡Principio del fin!
Será muerto el Hombre Orquesta de Norte América.
Benjamin Solari Parravicini, 1938.*3
On January 16, during a sold-out evening at BOZAR in Brussels, Timothy Snyder spoke with historian Pieter Lagrou about freedom, democracy, and resistance in an age of growing authoritarian pressure.
Drawing on his work on history, from the Holocaust to contemporary Ukraine, Snyder emphasized that freedom is more than the absence of constraints. It requires active engagement, moral choice, and care for one another. In dialogue with Lagrou, he reflected on historical lessons and present-day threats such as authoritarianism and digital manipulation. He warned against the abuse of free speech in the digital age, arguing that it should serve to challenge power rather than monopolize the information space.
Snyder stressed the vital role of history in defending democracy, as it helps societies resist propaganda, simplistic narratives, and the illusion of an inevitable future. The evening concluded with a powerful conclusion: freedom is not an individual possession, but a collective practice – one that must be continuously upheld by citizens, institutions, and generations alike.
©Huub Drenth
*1 Mark Carney's speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
*2 I’ve published a number of posts on Timothy Snyder, use the search bar beneath this post to explore them.
*3 Translation from Spanish: Beginning of the end! The one-man orchestra of North America will be killed. Known as "the Nostradamus of the Americas," Benjamin Solari Parravicini (1898–1974) was an Argentine artist who made extraordinary prophecies about the world’s future. What made his clairvoyance especially compelling was that it was expressed artistically through hundreds of drawings, known as "psychographs," each accompanied by short, handwritten messages. The drawing in this post was made by him in 1938.