Society is cooperation

Today, we are launching Fighting for a Free Future - not as another think tank or policy institute, but as something more urgent and necessary: a movement to amplify sound voices for a free society.

It is time to redirect politics and public discourse away from irrelevant chatter about who is up or down in Westminster and the latest passing scandal, towards the fundamental questions that truly matter for human flourishing in the long run. Neglecting those questions is why we are in such a mess today.

We are Fighting for a Free Future.

We live in extraordinary times. Our political discourse has become detached from economic reality, consumed by identity-based conflicts that obscure the ultimate sources of our difficulties. Meanwhile, the post-war consensus around big, managerial government has delivered mounting crises: low growth, stagnant productivity, housing unaffordability, monetary instability, regulatory sclerosis and social fragmentation.

The evidence is overwhelming that centralised economic management fails systematically, yet our political class continues doubling down on the same failed approaches. This is not mere policy disagreement – it represents a fundamental misunderstanding of how complex societies function and prosper.

Beyond left and right: the real choice we face

The old left-right paradigm has become obsolete. The meaningful choice today is between voluntary cooperation in a free society and coercive management by authority - between allowing spontaneous order to emerge through free exchange or imposing bureaucratic solutions from above.

An authentically conservative position recognises that healthy societies develop organically through countless individual choices, not through grand designs imposed by political authorities. True progressives should understand that genuine progress comes through entrepreneurial innovation and voluntary association, not through expanding state control.

This is why Fighting for a Free Future transcends party politics. We are building a coalition of voices who recognise that human dignity requires freedom - the freedom to choose, to associate, to innovate and to take responsibility for our own lives and communities.

From ideas to action

Ideas matter not in isolation but as the foundation of effective action. Fighting for a Free Future operates on multiple levels because the change we need requires both intellectual foundations and practical implementation.

Our Community connects freedom-oriented thinkers, influencers and citizens who understand that ideas and their absence have consequences for good and ill. We amplify voices that challenge failing groupthink with evidence and principled argument, not mere assertion.

The Insurgency with Steve Baker, our podcast, will create space for serious conversations about the choices we face as a society, helping us understand why public discourse has failed us all. We refuse to accept the terms of debate imposed by those defending failed institutions. Mere conservatism is not enough when the state is making progress only towards disaster. Subscribe here: podcast.fightingforafreefuture.com

Voices for a Free Future, our Substack, brings together a range of sometimes competing voices to expose the failings of the past and make possible a more hopeful future. Busy citizens know something is profoundly wrong: our writing will elaborate the causes of our crises and make possible a better society. Subscribe here: voices.fightingforafreefuture.com

Educational programmes like our successful book club provide deeper engagement with the intellectual tradition that built free societies. Understanding liberty requires more than slogans - it demands serious study of how freedom works in practice and why managerial societies fail despite their advocates’ good intentions.

Our merchandise will be fun and effective: visible symbols of commitment, conversation starters and resources for our mission. Ideas spread through personal relationships, not formal institutions. Explore our merchandise here: shop.fightingforafreefuture.com

The monetary dimension

Central to our economic and social difficulties is centrally planned monetary manipulation that distorts the natural coordination mechanisms of people freely cooperating in markets. Artificial credit expansion creates boom-bust cycles that devastate communities while enriching participants closest to newly created money.

Sound money is not a technical detail but a prerequisite for honest economic calculation and long-term planning. When state institutions control the money supply for political purposes, the consequences undermine those price signals that guide productive investment toward authentic individual and social needs, creating massive long-term distortions which undermine faith in a free society.

This is why monetary reform remains essential to any deep programme of economic reconstruction on sound principles. Without honest money, social cooperation in markets cannot function effectively: the benefits of free exchange become obscured by the chaos of artificial cycles.

Civil society and human scale

Big government doesn't just fail economically - it corrodes the human relationships that make life meaningful. When bureaucratic systems substitute for voluntary cooperation, we lose the social capital that makes both prosperity and community possible.

Rebuilding civil society requires understanding that human beings flourish in relationships of reciprocal obligation and mutual respect. These relationships cannot be manufactured by government programmes but emerge naturally when people are free to associate and take responsibility for their communities.

Decisions should be made at the most local level possible and preferably by free families, individuals and voluntary associations. We need a big society, not big government, because voluntary association and free choice are superior to the use of force.

The behavioural reality

We understand that changing minds requires more than logical argument. People respond to social proof, narrative and identity, not only evidence. This is why Fighting for a Free Future emphasises community building alongside intellectual development.

Success requires creating new social contexts where freedom-oriented ideas become normal and attractive rather than marginal and defensive. We are building institutions that make liberty appealing to people who might never read economic theory but can experience the benefits of voluntary cooperation in practice.

We must start taking greater pride in the extraordinary story of how free markets actually work. The knowledge our economy requires exists only in fragments; no one body can centralise it. The price system captures and coordinates all of this scattered knowledge instantaneously, with the free market acting as the platform for voluntary cooperation between individuals for the betterment of themselves and others.

We must speak of free markets with the pride and hope they deserve - not as cold mechanisms but as humanity's greatest engine of cooperation and prosperity. When we talk about liberty, we should do so with the confidence that comes from knowing it has lifted billions from poverty and created the wealth that makes compassion possible. History is behind us. We must never forget that.

What we risk losing

Without decisive action, we face the continued erosion of everything that makes human flourishing possible.

Economic stagnation becomes permanent as regulatory barriers prevent entrepreneurship and innovation. Social trust dissolves as identity politics replaces common citizenship. Individual responsibility gives way to collective management.

Most tragically, future generations lose the very concept of prosperity through freedom as a living possibility rather than a historical curiosity. They inherit a world where the choice between voluntary cooperation and coercive management has been foreclosed in favour of bureaucratic administration.

Our cause is urgent and grave: civilisation has too often proven more fragile than is commonly imagined. Alas that our politics is not meeting the challenge.

The path forward

Decline and disaster are not inevitable. The human desire for autonomy and dignity cannot be forever suppressed. Economic reality eventually asserts itself despite political and bureaucratic attempts at manipulation. And new technologies create opportunities to bypass gatekeepers who once controlled information and association.

Fighting for a Free Future exists to seize these opportunities. We are building the intellectual, social and practical infrastructure for a renaissance of freedom - not as nostalgia for some imagined golden age but as the foundation for genuine and much-needed progress in the twenty-first century.

The choice before us is stark but simple: voluntary cooperation or coercive management; spontaneous order or bureaucratic chaos; human dignity or political control. Fighting for a Free Future stands firmly with those who choose freedom, knowing that this choice alone makes possible the good society we all desire.

If you would like to support Fighting for a Free Future, please subscribe below and donate.