Real Freedom Requires Belonging

In his inaugural address on January 20, Donald Trump declared that Americans had voted for him to win back “their freedom.” Strikingly, it was this same word—“freedom”—that served as the campaign theme of Trump’s opponent, Kamala Harris, in the 2024 election. In my home country, Canada, I’ve noticed a similar phenomenon: Progressives from the Liberal Party and National Democratic Party have recently sought to focus on the language of freedom, just as conservatives like Pierre Poilievre have emphasized economic freedom, and the far-right “Freedom Convoy” fought against vaccine mandates and other health and environmental regulations. The story is much the same around the world.

Freedom is the most popular buzzword in politics. It’s perhaps the one slogan that unites movements—left, right, and center—across the world.

But what if “freedom”—in the sense of our personal prerogative to do whatever we want—isn’t actually what most people around the world are yearning for today?

As Janis Joplin sang, “Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose.” And there’s some truth to that. Today, when politicians around the world talk about freedom, there’s evidence that they’re really grasping for ways to address a broader and more profound longing in the modern world: belonging.

The 20th-century political philosopher Isaiah Berlin had a lot to say about the balance between freedom and belonging. He drew a distinction between what he called “negative liberty” (freedom from interference, like taxes or regulations or other people’s control over us) and “positive liberty” (the freedom to realize our fullest potential, to act on our truest aspirations). Negative liberty is the right to be left alone. But positive liberty depends on other people. To promote it, we need public goods like education and healthcare as well as the love and care of a community. Berlin’s positive liberty is the idea that true freedom is a profound inner state—what he called “self-mastery." Yet, attaining this self-mastery requires going beyond the self, refining our wants and our values in communion with others, finding our place in harmony with the greater whole, and ultimately working with other people to build a better world.

This isn’t what I typically think of when I hear politicians talk about “freedom.” Berlin’s idea of positive liberty is a perspective on what I call belonging: our experience of wholeness and genuine connection.

And today, the most serious challenges we face are challenges to our belonging.

Across the globe, we’re seeing major declines in face-to-face connection and even trends of extreme social withdrawal—evident in phenomena like Japan’s “hikikomori” (people who virtually never leave home) as well as “deaths of despair” (from overdose, suicide, and alcohol) in the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere. The dominance of social media and the loss of stable community bonds are creating a profound hunger for real connection—not just individual autonomy.

Rising rates of workplace burnout from North America to Southeast Asia demonstrate that people are seeking something more than the freedom to pursue profit by any means. Sure, people want financial security and relief from the rising cost of living. But many are also yearning for dignified, meaningful work that brings a sense of respect and feelings of camaraderie.

From the “Yellow Vest” movement in France to mass protests in India over farm laws to anti-government uprisings in Hong Kong, people are challenging political and economic structures that they feel have left them without a voice. It’s not just the pursuit of personal liberties, but also a longing for equitable participation in shaping their collective futures.

At the same time, environmental threats are jeopardizing people’s homes and communities. From the wildfires that destroyed so many L.A. neighborhoods to the hurricane that flooded much of western North Carolina, people are being uprooted from the lands they call home.

As I’ve written in this series of posts, belonging isn’t just about a connection to other people, but also to place, power, and purpose. In interviews with more than 150 experts, movement leaders, and other people with direct lived experience, I’ve come to see that it's an essential set of conditions for human flourishing.

So, today, it’s not enough for leaders to keep carrying the banner of freedom. They need ways of talking about our quest for belonging.

In writing my book On Belonging: Finding Connection in an Age of Isolation, I convened a group of political and legal scholars to explore an idea that could bridge the values of liberty and connection. We gave it a provocative name: the Right to Belong.

All people, by simple virtue of being born, have the Right to Belong. We have an inherent claim to meaningful connection (because that’s what makes us human). So, the Right to Belong isn’t an entitlement granted by a constitution. It’s a birthright. Yet, it’s also a principle that governments and international organizations can and should enshrine. As Kenneth Roth, the longtime executive director of Human Rights Watch, emphasized to me, the Right to Belong, in practice, can mean a constellation of rights and responsibilities that focus policymakers’ attention on defending and amplifying belonging. This can mean connectedness through community, security in the places we call home, the feeling of ownership in shared outcomes, and a sense of mission with others. Embracing the Right to Belong can spark innovations, from city-level belonging initiatives and interfaith dialogues to renewed national social contracts.

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I offer this idea of the Right to Belong not so much as a political platform that can win elections but rather as an invitation to imagine: What if we could have a new set of organizing principles for governments and societies to meet the demands of the age in which we’re living?

It’s understandable that politicians emphasize personal freedom. It’s a feeling that virtually all of us value at a deep level. But these are times when we need to contemplate the world we truly want—and what really constitutes our fulfillment and well-being. The real answers may run deeper than political buzzwords.