Timothy Snyder’s Online Lecture “Why Freedom Matters More Than Everything” - the 11th Book Arsenal

Timothy Snyder's online lecture "Why Freedom Matters More Than Everything" took place at the 11th Book Arsenal within the The Focus Theme “When Everything Matters”.
Timothy Snyder is an American historian and co-head of the Documenting Ukraine project at the Institute of Human Sciences in Vienna.
For centuries, Ukrainians have fought against various prohibitions, and now they give their lives to protect themselves from enslavement. For people who are kept in torture camps, residents of cities and villages who found themselves under occupation, freedom is not an idea, but something perceivable. However, in general, in post-authoritarian societies, people most often talk about ‘freedom from’, and discussions revolve around the choice between freedom and security. But why are these things mutually exclusive and not mutually dependent? Ukraine’s protection of its borders proves that only a safe territory can be a space of freedom. Ukrainian society also shows the practical effectiveness of freedom. Can such an interpretation of it be unifying for the modern world?
Video - Yuri Gryaznov, Natalia Pyrohova
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[@marzenajaworska3663]

Very profound lecture made by a strongly Independent thinker and a wonderful human being. I listen to all the lectures by prof. Snyder and never have enough 🙂. Warm hugs from Poland to all Ukrainian, Belarussian and all the people listening to it - I wish you all a true victory. ❤️

[@padellina9596]

Same here. I am Czech and thanks to Tim’s books finally learned what my school had never taught me, about Ukraine, Russia, and totalitarian systems and tendencies everywhere.

[@MaximilianBabyface]

Is it profound? To me it sounds like a lot of "Freedom Gud, Tyranny Bad"

[@witoldnapiorkowski2631]

Ditto here. I impatiently search YT for any new appearances by Professor Tim, and can't seem to get enough. A rare writer, among Anglophones, perhaps unique, who truly "gets" our history and even our psychological conditioning. Brings a true deep humanity to his outsider perspective - TS becomes a worthy guiding voice in "all-things-European-History"

[@thefisherking78]

@@MaximilianBabyface you can lead a horse to water....

[@itsgoodforyou4235]

Tim is talking, and Ukrainians are dy**g.

[@thefisherking78]

Man that was great. Thank you Prof Snyder

[@DeanRamser]

Щиро дякуємо за чудове відео ❤ Слава всім захисникам України 🙏💙

[@dagmarueberfeld-lang4088]

Professor Snyder is one of my favourite scolars. He is a thoughtful thinker with a brilliant mind and the ability to bring order to the most complex situations societies find themselves in. It's always a great joy for me to listen to his talks.

[@jovanjanjic9029]

22:30 Also a sense in which freedom is positive: It demands taking up responsibility for your decisions, because they are not handed over from above.

[@CollectiveWest1]

Tim Snyder is a very powerful and clear speaker. All the more powerful because of the context of the Russian full scale invasion of Ukraine. Democracy also demands that people behave like adults. "A free person recognises that no choice is perfect." Yes. Support from the UK for brave Ukraine.💛💙

[@willnash7907]

Extraordinary lecture. Extraordinary lecturer.

[@ArtU4All]

Freedom is something to be experienced, like tasting delicious unknown fruit or food. Freedom is a very tangible experience. It is not only a philosophical concept. Freedom is sweet, invigorating, exciting and calming all at once. 🇺🇦❤️🌿🇺🇸

[@Alina-dw2lg]

Freedom is a cooperative effort (c) So simple, but also very true 💙💛

[@TLA725]

Well articulated, thank you.

[@whattalks]

Brilliant as always. Professor Snyder always brings clarity to the most complex issues. Can't wait for the book.

[@johnmyers6117]

Freedom and responsibility go together." "A free person is also a responsible person." "An unfree person can be perfectly irresponsible." Thank you Professor Timothy Snyder. I experienced this first hand while living in China for 9 years. Because people did not have a voice or vote to determine their government, many automatically didn't care about their community or environment. Why should they? It was out of their control. It was all about "what can I get away with." This led to irresponsibility. No one took responsibility for any failures or problems at work. They either tried to hide the problems or they would point to the other guy and blame them. No one actually said "sorry, I made a mistake." People were afraid to accept praise for fear they would usurp the higher ups. People were hesitant to take initiative for fear of upsetting their bosses. I feel this leads to stasis and stagnation of creativity and society.

[@MaximilianBabyface]

It sounds to me like you are speaking about the United States and calling it China.

[@johnmyers6117]

@@MaximilianBabyface I'm talking about responsibility for having freedom. Political apathy can be found everywhere. No political system is perfect. But at least in the US they have a free press that can report about the abuses of power. They have a voting system that can remove detrimental officials and governments such as in 2020 when Trump was defeated. The US has a separate judicial system that can indict those who break the laws and do harm to the freedom of the people. This is what is going on now. Sadly, China has none of these and has no choice but to accept what the CCP decides to give them. Xi has been in power for about 10 years with no visible successor. No one is allowed to voice any sort of criticism. This is called tyranny which is dictatorship. The Chinese people have decided their own fate and cannot decide for themselves what kind of government they want because they have not taken responsibility for their freedom. Thus the Chinese people are like the frog in the slowly boiling pot of water. They have allowed the water to boil and must only sit in it and suffer. They may try to blame others. That is what the CCP does. But they only have to blame themselves. This is true for all peoples in every country. In order to be free, you must take responsibility for your freedom. If you don't, someone, like the CCP, will take it away.

[@awuma]

@@MaximilianBabyface Maybe on university campuses, in corporations and in institutions....

[@MaximilianBabyface]

@@awuma Maybe if the USA would focus on solving it's domestic problems and stop focusing on bashing everyone people wouldn't be so poor they can't afford basic healthcare in your country.

[@sashad.7722]

Thank you for this super intetesting and inspiring lecture❤

[@RomanStell]

Thanks for the lecture, Professor 💙💛

[@sashad.7722]

Дуже сподобалось про цінності і характер 😍

[@tralfvelga]

Thank you so much for such an inspiring event❤❤❤

[@recordmanagement]

as all of Timothy Snyder's talks, lectures and interviews ... all jewels of knowledge and educated argumentations ... I found again answers in the above. I am also humbled by the audience. FREE and courageous ladies of Ukraine speaking. I can not wait to travel in a post-war country and engage with those beautiful souls to find my own way. Слава України.

[@leannastoufer6333]

Thank you for this much-needed, thought-provoking talk. I really think that our values are what drives us as human beings. Sometimes, and for some people, the values may be quite self-serving, but they can also transcend the self and create a social fabric that is so much stronger than any one individual. I look forward to reading your latest book, Dr. Snyder, when the time comes to share it.

[@qpon79]

One of best expert about history in Europe in 🇺🇸 best wishes for Cracow

[@jenniferroe297]

Timothy Snyder be looking like the wizard of Oz on that tv screen.

[@politicalphilosophyclub]

Freedom should start with equal justice Freedom is the highest value among other values Freedom is the value of life it’s enable us to leave with other values . Others values that contradict each other are managed by freedom as higher value . Freedom is to have a choice to shape the future . Great lecture thank you everyone.

[@user-sy1ku6oe6f]

Vielen Dank! Slava Ukraine!

[@AstroGremlinAmerican]

12:58 Loyalty and honesty don't always go together. Freedom and responsibility always go together. My freedom depends on, for example, being responsible and not breaking in line and others not breaking in line. Responsibilities prerequisite to freedom extend to all of us not cheating, not stealing, etc. "Freedom with," freedom alongside that of others, who also are acting responsibly, is the only stable and real freedom. Oh, I see you say that at 44:09. Free people are considerate of others.

[@vladyats]

excellent! thank you

[@marichkaStr]

I love this man

[@irynaguziy1202]

In accordance with what I've recently heard:" We don't need to teacn children how to be compliant, we need to teach them how to be cooperative" That's how they grow up to be authentic, autonomous individuals, who can make their own choices, and consider the perspectives of others. That's how the positive freedom/liberty can manifest. Conflicting values - smth to ponder on - mercy as being in contradiction to justice... Very interesting, thank you

[@PopkornStar]

Wish I was there! Чудова лекція (як завжди), дякую

[@marichkaStr]

Wish I was there too

[@OksanaLviv1960]

Thank you🙏

[@1strumyczek]

This is the one of most important lectures I've ever heard on freedom. One of the most important in modern ethics.

[@thefastandthedead1769]

'It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom - for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.' The words from 1320 in the Declaration of Arbroath seem as applicable today. Slava Ukraini and her supporters!

[@YURKODROGOBYCH]

Дай Боже. Вам здоров'я та подальших успіхів у праці.Слава Україні.Слава нашим Героям!!!

[@1midnightfish]

Very worrying to hear that he's been ill... I hope Tim Snyder realises that he needs to stick around for the next 3-4 decades. The world needs him.

[@olgamarsh169]

I love philosophy that keeps one foot and one ear close to the ground. Timothy Snyder is that philosopher -historian

[@subcitizen2012]

In this presentation Tim looks like our glorious leader being beamed on a big screen lol. He's the authoritarian leader we need rn though. Probably one of the set of hands on the planet I trust the most. Him and Tom Hanks for the "Tim and Tom:s Glorious Revolution to Fix Everything Bestest, Yesterday." The opposition will have their feet tickled with feathers until they pee themselves.

[@marilynjackson3342]

Will there be a transcript in English of both the talk and the comments by Tim Snyder? Thanks for posting this!

[@andreusDADA]

“Якби об'єднання людства щодо мови й народності було можливе, воно було б загибеллю для загальнолюдської думки, як заміна багатьох почуттів одним, хоч би це єдине було не дотиком, а зором. Для існування людини потрібні інші люди, для народності - інші народності.” (Олександер Потебня")

[@ArtU4All]

Це є геніально 🙏

[@kopeducati]

Timothy Snyder and Stephen Kotkin are all the people you should listen to to know about the European East. The depth of knowledge of both is simply stunning. Timothy adds the philosophical aspect.

[@mikoajiwanski1761]

Yes!!!

[@steveelim]

Snyder is brave to speak on a subject that brings to light the crimes of those dictators who want the world to leave them alone to do what they want to the people they lord over in order to protect their greedy and selfish hold on power and tyranny. These are oppressive blights of humanity who perversely do believe in freedom - that of their own - that they must vehemently and often violently defend at the expense of that of their people, and in a current case, that of their smaller neighbors. Go safely, Dr. Snyder.

[@myronstout63]

Pure poetry…

[@ceceliablair9177]

I believe that both C S Lewis and Carl Jung considered courage to be the first virtue because without it, none of the other virtues, or ethical qualities could be chosen. I wish I could recall the exact quotes

[@louisgaudreau1277]

Good point as I also have put courage at the highest level. I would think To be free is a courageous act. And courage a manifestation of freedom but only as seen from outside of whom is feeling and acting free.

[@ArtU4All]

Aristotle said that, per Google ☺️ - I did’ t fact checked 😉

[@MrDermotMcDonnell]

Genius 👍

[@SkyeRangerNick]

ty

[@truepatriot6388]

Freedom is at the heart of all the autopoietic capacities and choices of complex adaptive systems. Living beings, capable of evolving toward greater beauty, intelligence and resilience, are composed of self-organized and self-correcting patterns of relationship. These include cells, organisms, communities and ecosystems. These capacities are thwarted when external power and control is used to coerce and constrain our free choices, often resulting in loss of beauty and vitality, and disintegration into Illness, suffering and death.

[@NicholBrummer]

Maybe freedom must involve thinking at different scales: of time, space, numbers of people. It is about finding the right balance, between these sometimes contradicting interests. Think global, act local is part of that.

[@VidakSnuesik-uu1sv]

Гарний практікум з English )) та по суті чудой зміст .

[@MaximilianBabyface]

If being able to see a better future and shape it is a condition of freedom, what does that say about a country like the United States where what the people want has no impact on policy and the majority of people are feeling hopeless about the future?

[@ArtU4All]

In the United States, considering very current domestic events, I wonder what freedom are tasting those Americans that are supporting a criminal for the second presidency.

[@VaughanMcCue]

Thank you from Western Australia.

[@alexander_andrush]

Freedom is a process that creates more possibilities for individuals to make free choices, free decisions in the long term.

[@jonathangilmore3193]

How about the freedom to discover and be yourself responsible. Freedom unconstrained by social/personal responsibility is not a collective or connected freedom. I suggest freedom is not for adolescent adults; immature persons; that is, people who are largely incapable of emotional empathy or resilience. Maturity is a developmental characteristic, and allows others their freedom to develop responsibly!

[@TheEssky]

Hmmm...a few notions. Freedom seems to be an umbrella covering and protecting other values. Also free people are true characters. Maybe free people also make better individuals capable of co-operation instead of just following. Thanks. E

[@stivenson391]

👍🏻

[@kubuschu]

Slava ukraini

[@JJ-fr2ki]

11:12 Credentialed philosopher here: Snyder is smart, erudite, thoughtful, but a bit philosophically naive. It looks like he can do and say everything he needs by talking about interests, emotional valence and Geist (meaning), and dispense with the bad metaphysics arising from a “value”’realism that says rights adhere to humans like charge on an electron. This physicalist turn generates a more robust, insightful and useful account of “evil” and advice on how to live.

[@steve-real]

I took Professor Timothy Snyder’s The Making of Modern Ukraine course. A free online course from Yale University. I read his Bloodlands book. I’m still recovering and that was months ago. What a horror show. How such a good man and gentle soul can write a book like that is stunning. Some of the personal stories in there had me weeping driving down the road. Thats why I am so pro Ukraine. If Trump wins this election? Ukraine is in deep trouble. He’s a fascist who wants to be emperor of America.

[@totonow6955]

The Fifth Dimension

[@tcpip9999]

Interesting, coherent, and very moving. But it left the main controlling ideas - of freedom and democracy - vague. To put it very crudely, the people who stormed the US Capitol on January the 6th were doing so, they claimed, in the cause of freedom and maybe democracy. In this instance, the concept of freedom was a cover for something else, or at a minimum it shows that people can have very different conceptions of what freedom is. Maybe it would be better to talk of freedoms rather than freedom. In any case, I would argue that freedoms are distributed very unevenly under capitalism, which makes it difficult to use it unproblematically as the gateway to all other values.

[@TwilightSun32]

yep, people often try to cover bad things by 'freedom', 'free speech', etc. That's not about freedom, that's about lie. Lie steals freedom as you couldn't act free with false information and false narrative everywhere.

[@gedonckers]

One problem with this is that Freedom is not inherently polarized, so it can also entail freedom to do immoral things. Berlin discussed this, for example. So while admirable, this argument cannot really be built on 'this has to be so, otherwise Russia'

[@coimbralaw]

Incoherent word salad

[@gedonckers]

​@@coimbralawSorry, I thought the target audience for these lectures would be familiar with 'axiological polarization' - I that terms have inherent positive or negative polarization (i.e. inherent value). The term has been around in academic literature since at least the 1950s

[@whatsdoin2392]

Freedom is not the highest value. Life is the highest value. You are not free if you are dead !

[@neilhamilton1034]

Yes, A good example of this would be the Gulags. They had a wonderful life...

[@whatsdoin2392]

@@neilhamilton1034 I would rather be alive under Russian rule than dead or seriously maimed under a "free" Ukraine. How many Ukrainian boys are now either dead or have suffered loss of limbs that will cause them unending pain for the rest of their lives. NO THANK YOU. Your "freedom" means nothing to those who suffer crippling injuries or disfigurement !

[@ArtU4All]

No wonder, as Prof. Snyder said, people chose death over not-free...........

[@whatsdoin2392]

@@ArtU4All Yep, people make all sorts of bad choices in life !

[@itsgoodforyou4235]

America could have prevented Ukraine war by guaranteeing Ukraine's neutrality - it didn't. Why don't you give a lecture about that?

[@jamadir]

its not easy to explain but ill sum the most relevant parts up for you: after the mess that was the middle east obama changed the american foreign policy to a way more inward looking approach. You know because of the interventionism that happened before in afghanistan? so Obama was really hesitant to mess with ukraine at the time. They should have, but in the view of the time then somewhat unterstandable.

[@Edo9River]

a thought: the only one who is absolutely free is the animal. The animal can do whatever it wants whenever it want, or constrained by nature's immediate demands. Freedom has to be committed to a level of responsibiliity. Values are the purpose of our existence. This life is a temporary existence, the only thing we take with us to the next world is the cultivation of values. The world religions have identified about 100 values. You can see the values by looking at the names of the Divine Power. The Quran identifies at least 100 Names of God. All of these are values. These values are what adhere to our soul. The individual soul creates its personal identity to the extent that it cultiates these values. and this identity is what is recognized in the next world. No I don't agree that Freedom is the highest value because the animal has the highest degree of freedom, IMHO. The foundation value for the individual is honesty. Without honesty there cannot be any further develoopment of individual potentiality. If you are dishonest to yourself, or if you are not taught to treat honesty as the highest value, you cant accurately judge your relationship to "reality". For society, Justice is the highest value, however the social value of Justice has to be based on honesty. Freedom is a vector, or a dimension of activity in the individual's development of potentiality, Development of potentiality of all the individual members is the purpose of the society. The highest expressioin of society's development is what leads towards unity of diversity of individuality.

[@steveelim]

I should balance my last comment by adding that scholars, especially historians, should be aware of another, more insidious, type of power that is just as disrespectful of freedom as the obvious ones I alluded to - yesterday's colonial and imperial powers and today's superpowers that invade weaker nations, toppling their governments often with much atrocity to the local populace or captured soldiers in cases where the vanquished country tried to defend itself, and getting away with such crimes on account of their might. I argue that such regimes are a menace to freedom too. Most if not all are arguably a worse kind because in addition to the atrocities, they are also guilty of hypocrisy. They claim to do these deeds in the name of some greater good, such as defending or ushering in democracy or freedom. However, if even just one innocent person has to die, be tortured, or have their right or rights denied unnecessarily in the process, then such claims are empty and hypocritical.

[@Pierluigi_Di_Lorenzo]

As we are foremost biological beings, food, water, health, environment and reproduction matters more than anything. Freedom probably comes next, but without economic independence and with social pressure and laws one is never free.

[@KingMinosxxvi]

Why establiisment hacks mattter more than ever

[@10Jasha]

Без обід, але щодо фрідома штучний інтелект пояснив мені більш складно і докладно. Серед усього він назвав право на життя, вільне від погроз, від насилля , і можливість обирати умови, в яких ми будемо почуватися в безпеці, це є невідємні права ,які гарантовані конституцією і не можуть бути відчужені. Також задекларовані в Уставі "про права людини". Отака вам теза шановні заморскі книгарі і люди інтелектуального труда. Просьба переказати ТСнайдеру , якшо хтось може

[@ArtU4All]

☺️ просьба=прохання; труд=праця.... без штучного інтеллекту 🌿

[@awuma]

But how does Prof. Snyder regard the lack of freedom at Anglosphere universities and institutions? I think he avoids this issue. In no way can Wokism be described as promoting freedom and democracy.

[@ArtU4All]

Hopefully he would take it up domestically, in the least. I have a feeling the war has taken a lot of time and attention. I just encountered a prominent healthcare blogger caught by surprise reading “pregnant individuals” in a research paper- “what?”, he stumbled “ what is this supposed to mean? They better be meaning ‘women’”. The man is older, and Ian from the woke/trans theme ☺️

[@T_WTX]

No comparison of different ways to specify 'freedom'? (Freedom from what, freedom to do what, specifically etc.)? No specific definition then used? Seems to me Snyder here uses 'freedom' as a weasel word. No cross-cultural, comparative historical analysis of the idea of 'freedom', liberal values, and state formation? The empirical institutionalization of 'freedom' in law? In my opinion, here Snyder is not doing history, but what seems to me to be a kind of ahistorical (and very un-dialectical) philosophy exempt from all history. What he says about the institution 'state' makes me even wonder if he believes in the historical fiction of social contract theory of state formation!! I learned a lot from Snyder's historical work (Bloodlands, Black Earth), and I admire his work tremendously here. But this treatment of freedom, I find very, very strange for a historian like him, and can't agree with him there. Fukuyama's 'Origins of Political Order' and 'Political Order and Political Decay' in my opinion give a much more balanced view of 'free, rule of law based states', based on comparative historical analysis, although he is just as weak as Snyder in Political Economy and understanding economic inequality. Nevertheless, it's a corageous and very honest description of his personal convictions and beliefs, which I find astoundingly ahistorical. Fukuyama, in comparison, went way beyond his old Hegelianisms in 'Origins ... ' and 'Political Order & Political Decay'.

[@khubza8999]

Unintelligible, full of abstract generalizations, but striving to be profound.

[@ivanalejandro-ct]

I don’t think Mr. Snyder’s appreciation of freedom, as purported hereby, is all that philosophically insightful. True, it builds on celebrated insights-a plentiful on them-but his take remains rather elusive: the talk’s over & freedom seems to be a whole lot of loosely connected things-an enabling factor, a positive mentality, a sacred word … a ‘character’ which is to say, a self-fulfilling way of being; even a social way of being! There’s obviously something amidst all that, - just what?

[@MariaMMCardoso]

Freedom goes away, by force of circunstances, when there are no economic well being. If one doesn't have money to go to the doctor when sick, to house themselves, to feed themselves and so on, the freedom may be there on the books, but how free is the population? other than emigrate? Now think: are you free to stop working? Are you free to chose whatever job you want or do you accept the less bad because you just need to get an income somehow? In an economy with a big unemployment rate, do people chose their bosses and employers? Are people able to chose to have some free time for the family or do they work 2/3 jobs just to make ends meet? Can a poor single mother chose between paying the bills and have quality time with their children? If you answered yes to all the questions above, I recomend you go to the streets and ask others, because you're clearly part of the 1%

[@Eugene4281]

How one can say about freedom and zelensky in the same sentence?... These two "things" are mutually exclusive

[@sapirIL_UKR]

I wish to change operator to one who was less oriented to sexual objectification 🤮

[@bureviy0]

sorry, we are NOT idiots, we won't let anyone who doesn't recognize our heroes (he said Bandera is fascist) to our infospace

[@karlheven8328]

I understand he is your national hero. But you will have to recognize the historical truth and minds are and will be shifting once Ukraine moves closer to the EU. The main blame is on us Germans still anyways, but truth about historical events is extremely important moving forward and especially for reconciliation between Ukraine and Poland and other western countries.

[@bureviy0]

@@karlheven8328 tell me please how could Bandera to be a fascist and sit in Sachsenhausen for the whole ww2 (1941-1944)?

[@Spaceshps]

If freedom is so important for USA foreigner policy. Give the lands back to German and leave Japan 4ever!

[@skronked]

Lands? WTF?

[@zpcossack]

Do you mean German lands like Koenigsberg? Weird idea, but it is tempting 😊

[@petrbondarev6146]

Снайдер подтверждает титул идеолога, данный ему Баумейстером. Являясь идеологом, он не может одновременно быть учёным. Хватит толкать свой кал под прикрытием науки.

[@jean6872]

*_This is pro-Kiev regime propaganda._*

[@Evan490BC]

I don't think anyone asked you. Now GTF out of here!

[@ivoryblack1701]

What’s “kiev”? 🤔

[@Evan490BC]

@@ivoryblack1701 I only know Kyiv and "chicken kiev", a.k.a. "russian soldier".

[@jean6872]

@@ivoryblack1701 Something tells me you know more than you let on.

[@freikorpsdamonisch8127]

@@jean6872 Kyiv not Kiev, russian girl.)