“An old man says to his grandson: ‘There’s a fight going on inside me. It’s a terrible fight between two wolves. One is evil–angry, greedy, jealous, arrogant, and cowardly. The other is good—peaceful, loving, modest, generous, honest, and trustworthy. These two wolves are also fighting within you, and inside every other person too.’ After a moment, the boy asks, ‘Which wolf will win?’ The old man smiles. ‘The one you feed.’”

—Rutger Bregman, Humankind: A Hopeful History

Across America and around the world, people’s commitment to democracy and civic life is currently being tested. With chaos and cruelty unfolding on a grand scale, all of us who love the promise of democracy as a way of life for everyone—without exception—have a chance to make that promise come alive. Weavers in the worldwide FITO Network see “visible cracks in the systems we’ve inherited,” and, while this can feel “daunting, stressful, [and] frightening,” it is also “a chance to do something different.”

News feeds and disaster entrepreneurs want to lock our attention on a steady stream of crises. But there’s more to the story. There is also an unmistakable groundswell of interest in being part of a rising movement to thrive together. This hopeful, humane curiosity is a silver lining in the storm—and it can grow much stronger.

As authoritarianism ascends, it ironically fuels its own downfall. Aspiring autocrats, in their quest for power, always overreach, constantly causing more chaos, inciting more fear, and violating more cherished values and norms. Ian Bassin reminds us that autocrats “depend on steady accumulation of power. They need momentum. Without it, the illusion of inevitability collapses and so does their grip on control”. And as Otto Scharmer, a renowned scholar of systems change, observed, “as systems collapse, people rise.” This backfire dynamic explains how people with a just cause can change failing systems for good.

But none of that happens on its own. If the moral arc of the universe bends toward justice, then we the people must apply the pressure. In this moment of peril and possibility, it is fair to ask: will our humane responses be strong enough and fast enough to diffuse the gathering clouds of chaos and injustice?

Which wolf will we feed?

Daniel Stid frames the choice as Top Down Democratic Decline vs. Bottom Up Civic Renewal. While our national politics continue in a “doom loop of polarization, dysfunction, and de-legitimation,” we can also observe “green shoots of promise and pluralism” in communities across the country. Crucially, as Stid emphasizes, “the civic renewal we need is not primarily political or governmental but ultimately cultural in nature.”

This may sound far-fetched, but Harry Boyte reminds us that America has a proud, powerful tradition of ordinary people who see themselves as more than “bystanders, consumers, clients and spectators of democracy.” Rather, they see themselves as “builders and co-creators of a democratic way of life”. This rich understanding of our immense capacity to expand belonging and civic muscle is the driving force of shared stewardship, opening many more avenues to steer away from injustice and move decisively toward an equitable, thriving future.

A promising tool for stewards in this moment is the Bridge-Block-Build framework, which reveals a vast spectrum of civic actions people from all walks of life can use to not only escape escalating threats but also establish the vital conditions that everyone needs to thrive. These three distinct, but related strategies are all necessary for a concerted, humane response to authoritarianism:

• Bridge actions develop empathy and real relationships across differences through dialogue, mediation, and negotiation to find common ground. This depolarizes conflict, promotes pluralism, and fosters a “larger us.”
• Block actions involve standing up against harms and injustices, using litigation, multi-group solidarity, and nonviolent resistance to create pressure and raise awareness.
• Build actions are the constructive side of nonviolent action—they concentrate on what we want to create, not only what we must resist. Builders imagine just and thriving futures, weave vested interests, and invest in alternatives that actually establish the vital conditions everyone needs and expects.

It is neither feasible nor helpful for everyone to do the same thing. However, each of us can contribute something within a vibrant movement ecology. As nonviolent strategist Julia Roig explains, this kind of “broad-front organizing” enables us to harness the upsides of each approach—such as protecting the most vulnerable (block), engaging in healthy conflict resolution (bridge), or offering a unifying vision for the future (build)—all while minimizing potential downsides. The power in that maneuver ultimately springs from the fact that freedom for any of us depends on freedom for all of us.

This idea of “interconnected freedom” is central to our quest to thrive together. The authors of Freedom’s Revival point out that, in many languages, the origin of the word “free” meant “to love,” meaning “to be in a connected, caring community”. This ancient understanding flips the script on our contemporary obsession with “individualistic freedom,” which sees “reliance on others as a threat” and is adverse to mutual accountability. The journey towards this deeper freedom “requires individual and societal healing, repair, and growth,” asking us to move towards who we are not yet but might one day be.

A thriving future also depends on our will to stick together, with unwavering solidarity in the face of adversity and uncertainty. As Hahrie Han explains, quoting Valerie Bunce, “Democracy demands that people accept uncertainty over outcomes in order to have certainty over process.” It requires a willingness to share power across differences, even when “their side loses”. The authors of Freedom’s Revival echo this conclusion: “Through the portal of uncertainty, anything is possible. And only by stepping into uncertainty, accepting—even embracing—it, can we get free”.

This stance calls for immediate, courageous action in difficult situations, guided by a long view of our legacies for living together. It’s time to “ditch the familiarity of the unfree, crumbling world…time to stop mistaking false certainty for safety” and embrace our “generational project of building the world worthy of our descendants…[f]reedom—in its most connected and embodied form—is our inheritance, a gift and our sacred birthright and our joyful duty” to pass on.

Savvy stewards at PolicyLink infuse this joyful, generational work in their stirring affirmation that “We are the Founders”. “While the original signers of the Constitution didn’t include all of us, we, the people of our multiracial democracy, have always believed in more. It is now the work of our generation to take up the unfulfilled promise of ‘We, the People’ and refound a country that truly serves all. This is the invitation before us. This moment calls upon us to assume our role as founders of a true multiracial democracy and to remake the nation so all can flourish.”

You, too, are part of this unfolding story. A movement to thrive together is real and rising, with high stakes that are growing higher by the day. History teaches us that the inhumane schemes of aspiring autocrats will ultimately fail. And we can escape the escalating tragedy much faster if swift, spirited stewards join forces to establish the vital conditions that free us all to participate, prosper, and reach our full potential.

How are you feeding the good wolf in yourself and others? How are you joining with fellow stewards in Bridge-Block-Build actions? This movement needs you. It needs all of us who are dissatisfied with the status quo and dreaming of a future with all people and places thriving together—no exceptions.