Creating Freedom
Power, Control and the Fight for Our Future
Raoul Martinez
“If we want a freer society, we must try to live as if we are already free. A commitment to empathy, truth and freedom needs to be the starting point”
Available as Paperback, Hardback, eBook
Philosopher, artist and award-winning film-maker Raoul Martinez’s radical, revolutionary and highly provocative rethink of freedom
We are far less free than we like to think.
In Creating Freedom, Raoul Martinez exposes the mechanisms of control that pervade our lives and the myths on which they depend. Exploring the lottery of our birth, the coercive influence of concentrated wealth, and the consent-manufacturing realities of undemocratic power, he shows that our faith in free media, free markets, free elections and free will is dangerously misplaced. Written with empathy and imagination, this scholarly, fierce and profoundly hopeful manifesto makes a dazzling case for creating freedom on our own terms.
“Creating Freedom is quite magnificent in its intelligence, acuity, scope, human warmth and - most importantly - hope! My book of the year”
Stephen Fry
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“What makes it exceptional is its sophisticated philosophical argument… This year’s essential text for thinking radicals”
Stewart Jeffries
guardian
“Strong arguments … epic in scope … [A] manifesto … to enlighten citizens stuck in an illusion of democracy”
Helen Warrell
financial Times
“A unique contribution to a subject – discussed for more than two millennia – where unique contributions are rare indeed … 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. If the movement that Martinez celebrates and champions is ever to occur, this book will be a valuable stimulus and an essential guide”
Bruce Waller
“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
Raoul Martinez
Raoul Martinez is a philosopher, artist, and award-winning filmmaker. Creating Freedom is his first book. It is informed by over a decade of research and is accompanied by a documentary series of the same name. Episode One, The Lottery of Birth - produced, written and co-directed by Raoul - premiered in 2012. It was nominated for Best Documentary at London’s Raindance Film Festival and went on to win the Artivist Spirit 2012 Award at Hollywood’s Artivist Festival. It has been translated into several languages and the second film is currently in production. Raoul lives and works in London, where his paintings have been selected for exhibition in the National Portrait Gallery. www.creatingfreedom.info
What is the myth of responsibility, and what could we gain by challenging it? Watch this wonderful short RSA video, with Raoul Martinez, author of Creating Freedom.
Lee Camp of Redacted Tonight VIP interviews the brilliant author and filmmaker Raoul Martinez. Martinez’s new book “Creating Freedom” covers so many important issues facing our society…
“The author, and the arguments within his book, have a tendency to leave a reader feeling enlivened, stirred and provoked. But perhaps this should come as no surprise. We have no choice, after all.”
Seamus O'Reilly
The Irish Times
Neil Denny of LittleAtoms sits down with the writer, artist, and award-winning filmmaker Raoul Martinez to talk about his new book, Creating Freedom
Little Atoms
ACast
Raoul Martinez talks at Tedx
“What makes his arguments unusual is that they lead to some chastening conclusions. Here are a few: prisons need to be emptied of all but those who pose a threat to society. Elections must be exposed as a shabby trick on a deluded populace, a lie of democratic choice in a system controlled by money. The media must be revealed as what it is – a corporate capitalist machine to mass-produce stupidity (with the happy exception of this article).” Raoul Martinez, interviewed on Creating Freedom (“this year’s essential text for thinking radicals”).
Stuart Jeffries
Guardian
Raoul Martinez talks freedom at Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin.
Raoul Martinez’s keynote speech on Brexit and democracy at The Convention.
Raoul Martinez is interviewed on Book Shambles (a.k.a. the most endearing, entertaining books podcast around).
Artist and writer and Raoul Martinez joins Robin and Josie to kick of Season 5 of Book Shambles. They discuss Creating Freedom, have a debate about free will and chat books
Bookshambles
ACast