Abstract: Democratic norms decay as strongmen leaders disable checks on their power; artificial intelligence permeates every sector of societies. Although reflecting different origins and dynamics, these two trends in the first decades of the 21st century reflect and escalate social distrust and diminish human capacities. Reclaiming our freedom requires active resistance and and actions honoring and deepening our humanity through protest, collaboration, and creativity. I am truly humbled to be associated with René Cassin, whose vision and persistence were rivaled only by his devotion to human dignity and his lawyerly precision and rigor. In his speech accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, René Cassin stressed that the then 20-year old Universal Declaration of Human Rights marked "the permanent accession of every human being to the rank of member of human society," transcending the power of nation states.