We Are Not Free
Inner freedom, adaptive change, and the work of resistance
Scroll to the end to learn more and register for: The Revolution Will Not Be Psychologized. Three free community learning sessions in October.
tl;dr: Freedom now means holding two truths: authoritarianism is rising, and yet a deeper freedom remains. Our task is to pair inner liberation with imaginative, collective resistance. Here are some reflections & recommendations for action.
You probably use WhatsApp. Right?
You know how it invites you to “update your status?”
I rarely update mine.
My status always states:
I Am Supremely Free
And of course this is an aspiration. It is an intention. It is an affirmation of my belief, my trust, that a human being can become supremely free. My spiritual master embodied this radical liberation. When I say “I am supremely free” I’m like a toddler imitating the grown ups around me. It is a great way to learn.
This freedom. The freedom of the great ones. It may sound lofty, but we know it is real. Mandela embodied it. His freedom could not be taken away. It is freedom that transcends material and political conditions. It transcends 28 years inside a cell in a prison island. It is rare. And it changes the world.
We could call this the freedom of Kairos.
Kairos is not clock time; it’s meaning time. We each know how we feel when we hear the stories of those who live a life of meaning. Oriented towards something that transcends life and death. Meaning that is worth living for. Meaning that is worth dying for.
And there is another type of freedom. There is political freedom. The freedom to express and pursue what we each believe to be good. And to find a way to do so without infringing on the freedom of anyone else. Hard balance to strike. But what a worthy effort.
This is the freedom that we no longer have. Not here in Kronos time, the time we measure hours, days, and years. The time we straddled with a clock.
No. Not in these times.
In these times, we are not free.
We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low-wage job. Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent.
- Justice Sonia Sotomayor
There are many others who are directly naming our new set of conditions. Deepak Bhargava is clear in the opinion pages of The Guardian, We are no longer free, but we can get our freedom back:
Most of us are no longer free…
…for most [not all!!!] in this country, unfreedom is a novel experience. What makes this condition confounding is that our unfreedom doesn’t yet look like it does in Russia or China – it is still partial. Most in this country can still enjoy a dinner out with friends, loudly deploring the current state of affairs. For most, authoritarianism has not snuffed out the pleasures, private or communal, of a spring morning in the park. In fact, most of us can still read about horrors while lying on the grass, soaking up the sun.
If Bhargava names our condition with nuance, Christopher Armitage sounds the alarm in starker terms. On Substack he argues that:
The Supreme Court declared Trump above the law. He's threatening to arrest political opponents. He's already sent the FBI after elected officials when they haven’t committed crimes. Congress is his. Most state governments are his. Billionaire oligarchs openly coordinate with him. The window slammed shut.
So let's stop pretending we're in the "prevention" phase and start talking about what you do when fascists already control the institutions but haven't fully consolidated power yet. Because historically, nobody's been here before, not like this.
Both propose that we start thinking about solutions. I believe this is the time to truly start opening our minds to possibilities for resistance that we have not thought of before. My own big bets are in the work of helping ourselves mature beyond our adolescent culture. I want us to actively engage in the process of becoming “supremely free” so we that can aim for that freedom that cannot be taken away. Humanity needs a better sense of Kairos.
But we also live in Kronos. We contend with the injustice of our material conditions.
We have to do something here, about what is happening right now. And in order to do so we need to reimagine ourselves. We need to actively experiment with creative modes of action.
When Julian Norris writes about what it takes to shift a worldview, he comes closest to capturing what I believe is necessary. What I strive for in my own work. His recent piece, Raging Against the Dying Light: A Systems View of Human Futures, is one of his clearest articulations yet. I plan to write more about it next week.
But when I think about a shift in worldview, I remember how hard it is to change it.
And I think about my own work to facilitate what Ron Heifetz calls Adaptive Change.
Technical Change is applicable when the problem is clear, the solution is known, and the work is mostly about applying expertise. A whole lot of “change makers” have been working from here. Asserting our expertise, our knowing and our certainty.
It has not worked.
In an age where expertise hasn’t saved us, adaptive change becomes essential.
Adaptive Change is change at the level of values, beliefs, and assumptions. It is worldview change. A paradigm shift, a change in the perspective you depend on in order to see, understand, and feel the world. The shift becomes so complete that you can barely see things as you did before. It is a developmental leap that cannot be undone.
I've been doing this work long enough to feel the way a group gets excited by the idea of adaptive change. People seem to get it, it resonates.
But I’ve also been around long enough to notice how it is almost impossible to allow our values, beliefs, and assumptions truly change into something else.
It is starting to seem to me like we cannot willingly go into adaptive change.
Even when we get it. And even when we want to.
It.is.just.so.HARD.
You either need to have something like a profound transformational experience that feels spiritual in nature.
Or you need to be pushed against a wall, with no other options, under impossible circumstances.
In other words, adaptive change doesn’t happen through willpower; it happens through crisis or Grace.
It takes so much to let go of what we think we know.
The work has to be addressed at all levels. We can’t wait until we are “supremely free” before we start contending with our material reality. But neither can we ignore the inner work that is necessary to become the people we're here to become.
We must continue to pursue the arduous training of becoming worthy ancestors. Finding and following the narrow path of wisdom. And we also need to come to terms with what it will take to show up fully in these times, under these rapidly changing, increasingly adverse conditions.
Bhargava offers us tested tools for resistance. Armitage pushes us to imagine what feels impossible.
Both stretch us.
Here are some of the points of action that he recommends:
Go beyond “sue, protest, vote.” Keep using legal challenges, protests, and elections. But recognize they’re not enough on their own under authoritarian conditions.
Disrupt. Engage in disciplined, large-scale nonviolent disruption (boycotts, strikes, non-cooperation) that imposes real political or economic costs on authoritarians and their enablers.
De-legitimize. Organize everyday people around concrete issues (healthcare, immigration, workers’ rights) to erode public support for authoritarian policies and build broad pro-democracy coalitions.
Draw defectors. Pressure institutions (universities, businesses, faith groups) and individuals to stop cooperating with authoritarianism, and create welcoming pathways for unlikely allies across the political spectrum to join resistance efforts. (This one is a personal favorite)
Practice principled nonviolence. Root disruption in discipline, dignity, and even love for opponents. Both as a moral high ground and as a way to attract and sustain a wide movement. (This one too!)
And here are some of the recommendations that Armitage makes:
Accept that prevention is over. History shows fascists are never removed by normal democratic means once in power. The U.S. must act as if the window for prevention has already closed.
Build Blue State coalitions. States like California and New York could coordinate to bypass federal authority, forming compacts on climate, healthcare, immigration, and finance, effectively creating parallel governance.
Practice selective noncompliance (“Irish Democracy”). Widespread, quiet refusal to enforce or obey authoritarian mandates (tax resistance, non-cooperation by teachers, doctors, state police, bureaucratic “incompetence”) can make authoritarian rule unworkable.
Consider secession seriously. Blue states, as economic powerhouses, could credibly threaten or prepare for independence, forcing structural concessions or creating an alternative political future.
Leverage international pressure. Invite UN monitors, partner with EU and Canada, open alternate diplomatic channels, and expose authoritarian abuses globally to increase costs and isolation for the regime.
Recognize where power lies. Authoritarians hold the institutions, but the opposition holds most of the economy, culture, technology, and youth. Strategy must mobilize these assets creatively and at scale.
I share these ideas because I am aware of how hard it is for so many of us to look clearly at what is going on. We get stuck somewhere between the paralysis of doom scrolling and trying to resist and organize in the same way we always have. Or we succumb to the temptation to just put our heads in the sand.
What we need to do is "keep our bellies to the ground," like my beloved Tuesday says.
We need to continue to grow into the maturity necessary to face life on its own terms. To remember that somehow and inevitably we have been born for these times.
To keep the very, very long view. The view of millennia of ancestors and countless apocalypses.
To learn to live in both Kronos time and Kairos time.
To know with our full hearts that there is something in us, a fundamental freedom that cannot be taken away.
To do our very best to call in our courage, our compassion, our creative intelligence, our capacity to come together to alleviate the suffering of all beings
And so, even now, my WhatsApp status remains: I am supremely free. Not because it is yet true, but because it calls me forward
Because we cannot do this work alone, here are some opportunities to together for three learning sessions in October, you can click here to register. Google calendar invites will be sent to you.
Thursday, October 16, from 3PM to 4:30PM:
A discussion of the film Leviathan. Alexander Beiner, Producer and Director at Studio Kainos will be joining us!
Thursday, October 23 from 3:00PM to 4:30PM:
A discussion of the Josh Shrei’s Emerald Podcast Episode: The Revolution will not be Psychologized Part 1
Thursday, October 30 from 3:00PM to 4:30PM:
A discussion of the Josh Shrei’s Emerald Podcast interview of Bayo Akomolafe: The Revolution will not be Psychologized Part 2
Further Reading
I wrote a few pieces about how I’m grappling with it:
These included references to the learning sessions on the work of Gene Sharp and Nonviolent Direct Action that my friend Maureen White has been convening.
Thank you so much for reading Judith. I don't take the gift of your attention for granted. And feedback like this keeps me going. I'm glad it landed and resonated. Let's get free!
Brilliant, expansive, inspiring. Thank you.