authoritarianism
what we live under now
authoritarianism
When the men with guns who have always claimed to be against the system start wearing uniforms and marching 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.
Timothy Snyder • On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
At the very beginning, anticipatory obedience means adapting instinctively, without reflecting, to a new situation.
Timothy Snyder • On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
You submit to tyranny when you renounce the difference between what you want to hear and what is actually the case. This renunciation of reality can feel natural and pleasant, but the result is your demise as an individual—and thus the collapse of any political system that depends upon individualism.
Timothy Snyder • On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
It is institutions that help us to preserve decency. They need our help as well. Do not speak of “our institutions” unless you make them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions do not protect themselves. They fall one after the other unless each is defended from the beginning. So choose an institution you care about—a court, a newspaper, a la
... See moreTimothy Snyder • On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
The hero of a David Lodge novel says that you don’t know, when you make love for the last time, that you are making love for the last time. Voting is like that.
Timothy Snyder • On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
In 1984, the language of visual media is highly constrained, to starve the public of the concepts needed to think about the present, remember the past, and consider the future.
Timothy Snyder • On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.
Timothy Snyder • On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
Investigate. Figure things out for yourself. Spend more time with long articles. Subsidize investigative journalism by subscribing to print media. Realize that some of what is on the internet is there to harm you. Learn about sites that investigate propaganda campaigns (some of which come from abroad). Take responsibility for what you communicate w
... See moreTimothy Snyder • On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
Other forces were at work besides conformism. But without the conformists, the great atrocities would have been impossible.