We all aspire to liberty and security in our lives but few of us truly enjoy them. In this lecture Conor Gearty describes how this has come to be the case. Drawing on the insights set out in his latest book, Liberty and Security (Polity 2013) he describes our world as 'neodemocratic', a place where the proclamation of universal liberty and security is mocked by facts on the ground: the vast inequalities in supposedly free societies, the authoritarian regimes with regular elections, and the terrible socio-economic deprivation that is camouflaged by cynically proclaimed commitments to human rights. Gearty's lecture offers an explanation of how this situation has come about how we can all think we enjoy freedom while so few of us do. The lecture also provides a criticism of the present age which tolerates it. At the end of the lecture Gearty sets out a manifesto for a better future, a place where liberty and security can exist in truth and not just in camouflage for servitude.
