"The men of the future will yet fight their way to many a liberty that we do not even miss"

Max Stirner’s assertion that “The men of the future will yet fight their way to many a liberty that we do not even miss” points to the ever-evolving nature of freedom and the human condition. Stirner observes that the scope of liberty is not a static or settled matter; rather, each generation's concept of freedom is limited by its own context, customs, and blind spots. What feels like a settled and natural way of life today may, to future generations, appear as an intolerable limitation or unjust constraint, often one that was invisibly accepted or never even perceived by those who lived under it.

Human awareness is circumscribed by the horizon of its experience. Stirner suggests that people typically do not yearn for liberties they cannot imagine or have never considered. Their sense of autonomy and justice is shaped by the environment and historical moment into which they are born. Yet, history shows that freedoms are discovered, demanded, and realized as society progresses. Each new epoch brings into focus previously obscure forms of domination or control and incites the struggle for their dissolution. Looking backward, we can identify obvious injustices, slavery, disenfranchisement, restraints on thought or association, that were once unremarked, perhaps even invisible, to largely compliant populations.

Stirner’s reflection encourages humility regarding our present freedoms. Many forms of servitude or limitation remain unrecognized because they are so familiar as to be unnoticed. Future generations, equipped with a different sensibility, greater awareness, or technological advances, may recognize and resist these with the same passion that previous generations fought for rights we enjoy without a second thought. Stirner thus posits freedom as a perpetual quest where each age both inherits and expands the baseline of liberty, often taking for granted what was once won, and as often oblivious to what is yet unclaimed or unimagined.