This December, LOLA leaders were featured in 6 media outlets across Asia and Latin America.

Through op-eds and articles, they explored topics like economic challenges in Bolivia, the hidden costs of victimhood, gender and social dynamics, women’s empowerment, and what football can teach us about freedom.

See December’s media highlights and the impact our leaders made. ⬇️

Featured Appearances

What Keeps Human Societies Together? A Look at the Sources of Social Power (ESP)
Oriana Aranguren, LOLA Caracas Chapter Leader

In her article, Oriana Aranguren explains Michael Mann’s The Sources of Social Power, showing that societies are not unified systems driven by a single force. Instead, they are made up of overlapping networks of Ideological, Economic, Military, and Political power, each with its own logic and rhythm. These networks interact in unpredictable ways, creating social order without ever being fully controlled.

Aranguren highlights how history, from the Neolithic to World War I, emerges from these entangled powers rather than from inevitable progress. Revolutions, wars, and social changes often arise as unintended consequences of human action, and freedom and organization help hold society together while also shaping the structures that can trap it. Understanding these networks is essential because the future of society depends on our ability to navigate and reorganize them before their frictions lead to new crises.

Society is a web of overlapping powers, and how we navigate them will shape whether freedom thrives or collapses.

Read the full article

The Hidden Cost of Victimhood (ESP)
Julieta Knobel, LOLA Cordoba, Argentina Chapter Leader

In this article, Julieta Knobel explains how modern societies have begun to interpret almost all discomfort as real harm, turning disagreement, criticism, and frustration into signs of victimhood. This “victimizing lens” spreads from the individual to entire groups, blurring the line between genuine injustice and emotional discomfort. When everything is framed as damage, real victims lose visibility, facts lose importance, and moral judgment is replaced by emotional reaction.

Knobel warns that this mindset becomes politically dangerous, especially in Latin America, where fragile institutions and crisis-driven narratives allow victimhood to turn into political capital. Leaders can exploit this emotional framework to create villains, demand loyalty, and justify greater intervention in the name of protection. The article’s central message is stark: victimhood does not just distort reality, it shapes the kind of power a society is willing to accept, often at the expense of freedom.

Read the full article