timothy snyder on tyranny twenty lessons from the twentieth century

Make an effort to separate yourself from the internet. Avoid pronouncing the phrases everyone else does. Think up your own way of speaking, even if only to convey that thing you think everyone is saying. The moment you set an example, the spell of the status quo is broken, and others will follow.ĩ.

Someone has to. It is easy to follow along. It can feel strange to do or say something different. But without that unease, there is no freedom. Remember Rosa Parks. But know that evils of the past involved policemen and soldiers finding themselves, one day, doing irregular things. Be ready to say no.Ĩ. If you carry a weapon in public service, God bless you and keep you. When the men with guns who have always claimed to be against the system start wearing uniforms and marching around with torches and pictures of a Leader, the end is nigh. When the pro-leader paramilitary and the official police and military intermingle, the end has come.ħ. Authoritarians need obedient civil servants, and concentration camp directors seek businessmen interested in cheap labor.Ħ. It is hard to subvert a rule-of-law state without lawyers, or to hold show trials without judges. When political leaders set a negative example, professional commitments to just practice become important. Remove them yourself and set an example for others to do so.ĥ. Do not look away, and do not get used to them. Notice the swastikas and other signs of hate.

The symbols of today enable the reality of tomorrow. Take responsibility for the face of the world. So support the multi-party system and defend the rules of democratic elections.Ĥ. They exploited a historic moment to make political life impossible for their opponents.

The parties that remade states and suppressed rivals were not omnipotent from the start. So choose an institution you care about and take its side.ģ. Do not speak of “our institutions” unless you make them yours by acting on their behalf. It is institutions that help us to preserve decency. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.Ģ. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. Americans are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience. Now is a good time to do so. From across the fearful twentieth century, here are twenty lessons about what it takes to oppose tyranny, adapted to the circumstances of today.ġ.

Timothy snyder on tyranny twenty lessons from the twentieth century