A profound and radical manifesto calling for a transformation in the way we think about democracy, equality, and ourselves.
Freedom has long been a foundational concept at the heart of our civilization. Free markets, free media, free speech--even in these politically divided times, freedom is one thing we can all agree on. But we also live in a time of unprecedented economic inequality, eroding democracy, and a broken criminal justice system. How can we value freedom and simultaneously inhibit it?
In Creating Freedom, Raoul Martinez argues that the more we understand the limits on our freedom, the better we will be at resisting them. Drawing on neuroscience, criminology, psychology, politics, climate science, economics, and philosophy, Creating Freedom lays a blueprint for us to make sense of our fractured world--and illuminates the path toward a better future.
Industry Reviews
"Exceptional . . . This year's essential text for thinking radicals" --The Guardian (UK) "A stunning treatise; the freedoms within our society are illusory or entirely antithetical to actual liberty.... The author, and the arguments within his book, have a tendency to leave a reader feeling enlivened, stirred and provoked." --Irish Times "In this stunning and lucid book, Raoul Martinez re-assesses our past, re-examines our present, and re-imagines our future. It's such an exciting and compelling read that you almost don't notice at first how radical it is. Creating Freedom makes me think that we humans are on the cusp of our next big step--and it's this kind of thinking that will carry us over." --Brian Eno "I've been working my way through, highlighter in hand, at times thinking, 'Why bother! Just highlight the whole thing.'" --David Byrne "Provocative, powerful and important--Creating Freedom is a rigorous exploration of what's gone wrong with our society and how to make it right. A book for our time, this radical manifesto exposes the myths at the heart of our system and shows what the ideal of freedom truly demands from us, individually and collectively." --Susan Sarandon "Creating Freedom is quite magnificent in its intelligence, acuity, scope, human warmth and - most importantly - hope! My book of the year." --Stephen Fry "Martinez speaks for a generation living through a profound mismatch between their aspirations for freedom and creativity and the thudding conformity a society, driven by the market, demands" --Paul Mason "Everyone trying to puzzle through how to deal with the madness of the world - and the forces destroying it - should read this book" --Johann Hari "An impassioned social and political critique with glimmers of hope for change. British artist and documentarian Martinez makes his literary debut writing on a theme taken up recently by writers such as economists Thomas Piketty and Joseph Stiglitz, journalist Bob Herbert, and activist Ralph Nader: inequality, injustice, greed, and entrenched power have undermined democracy and threaten the common good and the future of our planet....An intelligent, rigorous manifesto." --Kirkus Reviews 'If you believe you are free, think again. Strong arguments . . . epic in scope . . . [A] manifesto to enlighten citizens stuck in an illusion of democracy" --Financial Times "Thought-provoking . . . sound and persuasive . . . Eminently readable with a an elegance of style not often found in theoretical works. It is no less than a rallying cry to take back the substance rather than the illusions of our freedoms." --New Internationalist "Beautifully written, vigorously argued and remarkably researched . . . No one has examined the issues of freedom and moral responsibility in such an extensive and fascinating context, or done more to show that these issues are not ivory tower debates but absolutely life and death issues for individuals and quite possibly for our species" --Bruce Waller " This discussion of the impossibility of ultimate moral responsibility is extremely well written, aphoristic in places, and philosophically right on target." --Galen Strawson
