authoritarianism
what we live under now
authoritarianism
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. Make an effort to separate yourself from the internet. Read books.
Timothy 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.
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
Life is political, not because the world cares about how you feel, but because the world reacts to what you do.
Timothy Snyder • On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
When political leaders set a negative example, professional commitments to just practice become more important. It is hard to subvert a rule-of-law state without lawyers, or to hold show trials without judges. Authoritarians need obedient civil servants, and concentration camp directors seek businessmen interested in cheap labor.
Timothy Snyder • On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
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.