It seems impossible to deny that powerful forces are conspiring to suppress basic freedoms and impose top-down control over American society. Intelligence agencies team up with Big Tech to censor information, governments are marking political dissidents as “terror threats,” and presidential candidates are hand-picked by party elites.

Looking around, I can’t help but feel that the American way of life is under attack. Yet at the same time, I know that research shows that successful people don’t believe that their lives are subject to control by distant powers.

Instead, they believe that effort is rewarded; they have an internal locus of control and think that their actions do affect the outcomes in their lives. How can I maintain this belief in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary?

It’s a challenge that’s had me puzzled for some time now. As a Czech-American born in the 1990s, I was lucky to have been raised in a golden age. My parents would not have even met if the Iron Curtain hadn’t crumbled a few short years before my birth. As it stands, hundreds of millions of people across Central and Eastern Europe made the transition from socialist dictatorship to constitutional government—and most did so peacefully.

Progress wasn’t confined to Europe. Throughout the 1990s, the world witnessed an incredible increase in freedom and prosperity as even countries like China liberalized. All told, about 1 billion people have escaped extreme poverty since I was born.

The 90s were a boom time closer to home, too. When I look back at the America of my youth, I remember an incredibly open society. While it’s true that Americans have never quite mastered the art of conversation—leading Linus from Peanuts to conclude that one should never talk about religion, politics, or the Great Pumpkin—the visceral hatred of today’s politics was unimaginable.

Fast forward to 2024, and the situation has undeniably changed. In the intervening years, the American government has gained vast powers under the guise of the War on Terror, and it now uses those powers against its domestic critics. In the place of a republic, America’s elites have erected an oligarchy that punishes dissenters even as it rewards those loyal to its decrees. Looking ahead, I worry that my children won’t enjoy the same rights and opportunities that I took for granted. I know I’m not alone.

Yet at the same time, I know that this isn’t a healthy way to think. After filling my head with all the calamities of a collapsing civilization, I lack the energy and optimism needed to be a good father and husband. Worse still, I find myself avoiding entire career paths for fear of discrimination. I love ideas and would like to complete a Ph.D., but I don’t want to risk my family’s future in an industry that is hostile toward conservatives—to say nothing of white men.

But wait—is that just an excuse?

My Czech uncle also wanted to complete a Ph.D. as a young man in the 1980s, but he wasn’t a member of the Communist Party. Without a clear way forward, he took a construction job building Prague’s metro system and attended classes at night. He eventually earned his doctorate under the socialist regime—and smuggled banned books into the country when he attended scientific conferences in the free world. Today, he’s the vice rector of the nation’s leading university, with dozens of patents to his name.

If you could travel back in time to 1980 to tell Czechoslovaks that they would have a free country before 10 years were up, no one would have believed you. Even dissidents thought the regime would take at least a century to topple. Yet they continued to speak out—and to hope beyond hope.

Instead of despairing, they founded their own underground schools and art associations to pursue excellence without political interference. When the Communist Party grew weak, they had the skills and the network needed to take advantage of the opportunity.

So while Americans need to know the realities facing the country, we need to avoid cynicism. No one knows what’s coming, but we need to be ready.