Are there times when the words left by a person sound more important than ever before?

Last week, Daniel Ellsberg’s final work, *Truth and Consequence*, was published. He passed away in 2023, but he had been repeating the same message since the time he released the Pentagon Papers fifty years ago. It’s a warning about whether we are falling into the trap of obedience.

What Ellsberg repeatedly emphasized was how dangerous blind obedience to authority can be. He pointed out that most people follow orders, a minority dissent, and only a very small minority take risks to resist. He himself was part of that very small minority.

What’s interesting is the evolution of his thinking. In his youth, he sought respect from violent men. But throughout his life, he found a different path—one of nonviolent civil disobedience, a more fundamental form of resistance. This shift in language is not just a tactical change; it signifies a profound transformation in human values.

Immediately after releasing the Pentagon Papers in 1971, he became isolated from those around him. Former colleagues even feared to shake his hand. But he learned something from that experience: the importance of choosing the risks of freedom and commitment over those of obedience and conformity.

Because he was educated in elite institutions, he saw things from within. He wrote in 1976 that the upper-class education system might actually be a device that teaches people obedience. Unknowingly, they are conditioned to uphold systems of inequality and privilege.

His warnings throughout his life were consistent. In an era of nuclear weapons and looming planetary extinction, he believed silence was complicity, and silence was betrayal. Nearly 70 times he was arrested because he acted on that conviction.

Now, through this book, Ellsberg’s voice is revived and it asks us: where will you show moral courage? The answer to that question lies with us.