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The second chapter of On Freedom starts with “Improbably States.” At an early age, Snyder discovered the writings of Václav Havel, a Czech poet who eventually became his country’s president. Snyder describes the plot of Havel’s play Audience, written in secret during communist rule. The play deals with normalization, people’s pretense of accepting an oppressive regime, which breeds inward cynicism while yielding control to the regime.

“Declarations and Accommodations” offers an explanation for unpredictability as an ingredient of freedom. Snyder describes morals and values as the “fifth dimension,” a layer of existence that affects the first four dimensions of time and space by making them less predictable. People often follow their values and principles, even when it is to their physical detriment or against societal expectations. Tyrannical regimes require their subjects to be predictable. Freedom lies in the ability to make unique choices. “Entropy and Gravity” finds similarities in the theories of Weil and Havel, reaching the conclusion that the morals and values of the fifth dimension facilitate the creation of new and positive things. “Our Machines” discusses how media can be used to control the populace, using the example of television programming in 1970s Czechoslovakia. Regimes can use media to normalize a populace by making them more homogeneous (and thus more predictable).

In “Our Cosmonauts,” Snyder relates how, in 1977, several Czech rock bands were put on trial, mostly for offering alternate values. Václav Havel attended one of the trials and spoke on the bands’ behalf, trying to preserve their unpredictability. Havel was imprisoned for this. “Human Rights” describes the human rights initiatives that the Soviet Union ratified in 1976 but mostly ignored, since laws were treated as secondary to the party. Despite this, many citizens protested government actions on the basis of human rights. In “Plastic People,” Snyder lists a succession of bands and musicians that influenced the Plastic People of the Universe (one of the bands prosecuted in Czechoslovakia). He reviews the origins of rock music in the music of freed slaves in post-Civil War America. Invention, and other means of changing traditions, create unpredictability and promote responsibility.

“Normal Dissidents” continues the exegesis of Václav Havel’s theories, putting forward the claim that when people act in accordance with their values, they may appear unpredictable but seem predictable to themselves. Zelens’kyi’s remaining in Ukraine when Russia invaded is an example. “Emancipation” states that liberation and freedom exists across generations and that too often, people try to attain entrance into groups that have already been emancipated, instead of changing the repressive system for everyone. Snyder reiterates that emancipation from the government is a dead end. In “Glass Cane,” Snyder states that multiple virtues often apply in the same situation, and a person will have to choose which to follow. For example, one should be merciful and one should be consistent, but one cannot be consistently merciful, since mercy is often an exception. This leads to unpredictability. “Servant” and “Biography” describe the dangers of technology. While computers help people connect and share information, they also cause individuals to disengage from society and its values. Social media is designed to manipulate its users. People should value facts and history—that is, what actually happened.

In “Maidan,” Snyder claims to be one of the few people who predicted both that Russia would invade Ukraine in 2014 and that Donald Trump would attempt a coup in 2020. He was able to do so by paying attention to propaganda and social media. In 2014, Snyder held a conference in Kyiv to help Americans and other Europeans better understand the Ukraine situation. “Confinement” describes incarceration as an attempt to either sever (through solitary confinement) or overload (through overcrowded cells) a person’s connection to the world. “Celly” describes how cell phones and social media can be detrimental to people’s unpredictability. Not only does social media provide constant affirmation, but it also distances people from one another, undermining meaningful connection. Over the last decade, social media data collection also enabled Russian propaganda to distribute targeted misinformation. In “Lost Time,” Snyder states that the reduction in people’s attention spans, due to social media, also affects the creation of long-term memories.

In “Regained Time,” he recalls his earliest experiences as a fan of the band R.E.M., who like the Plastic People of the Universe were influenced by the Velvet Underground. The experiences of his childhood, without digital devices, helped create his unique, unpredictable self. In “Inhuman Barriers,” Snyder talks about how he does not use slides or a visual presentation when he is paid to be a guest lecturer. He believes that people “relax into a zombified calm” when presented with such media, knowing that they will not be responsible for active engagement. “Rationalizing Zombies” discusses the common focus on how instead of a focus on why. For example, people are too often concerned with optimizing efficiency and don’t question the parameters of human existence or the values of society.

“Brain Hacks” further discusses how social media algorithms make people more predictable. “Experimental Isolation” briefly describes an experiment involving rats that were given intermittent reinforcement. Like late-stage communist regimes, tech companies use intermittent reinforcement and isolation to keep people occupied and sedentary. “Icy Tumult” describes two additional brain hacks, confirmation bias and social conformity. Social media uses confirmation bias to make people feel validated. This encourages social conformity, where people stay within their own groups, suspicious of other groups and ideas.

“Led Leaderless” explains that the more people commit to social media, the more easily they are manipulated. “Self-Built Cages” describes how digital interaction causes people to have less physical interaction in the world. Then, by manipulating fears and emotions, those who control social media can motivate people to commit actions which were not their own idea (cognitive dissonance). The chapter’s last vignette, “Radical Tradition,” discusses the value of vocabulary and literature, which social media does not support. Snyder urges the reader to resist the lure of social media.

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