On Tyranny

I have been rereading Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny – 20 lessons from the 20^th Century (2017) which he has helpfully summarised here

Eugène Ionesco, the great Romanian playwright, watched one friend after another slip away into the language of fascism in the 1930s. The experience became the basis for his 1959 absurdist play, Rhinoceros, in which those who fall prey to propaganda are transformed into giant horned beasts. Of his own personal experiences Ionesco wrote:

University professors, students, intellectuals were turning Nazi, becoming Iron Guards, one after the other. At the beginning, certainly they were not Nazis. About fifteen of us would get together to talk and to try to find arguments opposing theirs. It was not easy….From time to time, one of our friends said: “I don’t agree with them, to be sure, but on certain points, nevertheless, I must admit, for example, the Jews…,” etc. And this was a symptom. Three weeks later, this person would become a Nazi. He was caught in the mechanism, he accepted everything, he became a rhinoceros. Towards the end, only three or four of us were still resisting.

Ionesco’s aim was to help us see just how bizarre propaganda actually is, but how normal it seems to those who yield to it. By using the absurd image of the rhinoceros, Ionesco was trying to shock people into noticing the strangeness of what was actually happening. The rhinoceri are roaming through our neurological savannahs. We now find ourselves very much concerned with something we call “post-truth,” and we tend to think that its scorn of everyday facts and its construction of alternative realities is something new or postmodern. Yet there is little here that George Orwell did not capture seven decades ago in his notion of “doublethink.” In its philosophy, post-truth restores precisely the fascist attitude to truth—and that is why nothing in our own world would startle Klemperer or Ionesco.

Fascists despised the small truths of daily existence, loved slogans that resonated like a new religion, and preferred creative myths to history or journalism. They used new media, which at the time was radio, to create a drumbeat of propaganda that aroused feelings before people had time to ascertain facts. And now, as then, many people confused faith in a hugely flawed leader with the truth about the world we all share. Post-truth is pre-fascism.

These are twenty lessons from the twentieth century Snyder published 8 years 

ago, first as a kind of online declaration, and then, with historical examples, 

in a pamphlet called On Tyranny. They were written in advance of the first Trump 

presidency, and have been used since in the U.S. and around the world. 

For those who want democracy and the rule of law in the United States after 2024, 

I would only add: now is the time to organize, to prepare to win locally and nationally, 

and to talk not only about what is to be lost but what can be gained. 

I wrote On Tyranny in a defensive mode; but freedom is something not only to be defended 

but to be defined and to be celebrated. As for me, I believe that if we can get through 

the next year, things could get better. Much better. For now, four years after Trump’s 

attempt to end democracy and the rule of law in the United States, a reminder of the lessons.

 I recall them now in then hope that I won’t have to do so again a year from now.

1. Do not obey in advance.  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. 

2.  Defend institutions.  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 law, a labor union -- and take its side.

3. Beware the one-party state.  The parties that remade states and suppressed rivals 

were not omnipotent from the start.  They exploited a historic moment to make political life 

impossible for their opponents.  So support the multiple-party system and defend the rules 

of democratic elections.  Vote in local and state elections while you can.  Consider running 

for office.

4. Take responsibility for the face of the world.  The symbols of today enable the reality 

of tomorrow.  Notice the swastikas and the other signs of hate.  Do not look away, and do 

not get used to them.  Remove them yourself and set an example for others to do so.

5. Remember professional ethics.  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.

6. Be wary of paramilitaries.  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.

7. Be reflective if you must be armed.  If you carry a weapon in public service, may 

God bless you and keep you.  But know that evils of the past involved policemen and soldiers 

finding themselves, one day, doing irregular things.  Be ready to say no.

8. Stand out.  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.  

The moment you set an example, the spell of the status quo is broken, and others will follow.

9. Be kind to our language.  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.

10. Believe in truth.  To abandon facts is to abandon freedom.  If nothing is true, then 

no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so.  

If nothing is true, then all is spectacle.  The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.

11. 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 

with others.

12. Make eye contact and small talk.  This is not just polite.  It is part of being a citizen 

and a responsible member of society.  It is also a way to stay in touch with your surroundings, 

break down social barriers, and understand whom you should and should not trust.  

If we enter a culture of denunciation, you will want to know the psychological landscape 

of your daily life.

13. Practice corporeal politics.  Power wants your body softening in your chair and 

your emotions dissipating on the screen.  Get outside.  Put your body in unfamiliar places 

with unfamiliar people.  Make new friends and march with them.

14. Establish a private life.  Nastier rulers will use what they know about you to push you 

around.  Scrub your computer of malware on a regular basis.  Remember that email is 

skywriting.  Consider using alternative forms of the internet, or simply using it less.  

Have personal exchanges in person.  For the same reason, resolve any legal trouble.  

Tyrants seek the hook on which to hang you.  Try not to have hooks.

15. Contribute to good causes.  Be active in organizations, political or not, that express 

your own view of life.  Pick a charity or two and set up autopay.  Then you will have made 

a free choice that supports civil society and helps others to do good.

16. Learn from peers in other countries.  Keep up your friendships abroad, or make 

new friends in other countries.  The present difficulties in the United States are an element 

of a larger trend.  And no country is going to find a solution by itself.  Make sure you and 

your family have passports.

17. Listen for dangerous words.  Be alert to use of the words "extremism" and "terrorism." 

 Be alive to the fatal notions of "emergency" and "exception."  Be angry about the treacherous 

use of patriotic vocabulary.

18. Be calm when the unthinkable arrives.  Modern tyranny is terror management.  

When the terrorist attack comes, remember that authoritarians exploit such events in 

order to consolidate power.  The sudden disaster that requires the end of checks and 

balances, the dissolution of opposition parties, the suspension of freedom of expression, 

the right to a fair trial, and so on, is the oldest trick in the Hitlerian book.  Do not fall for it.

19. Be a patriot.  Set a good example of what America means for the generations to come. 

 They will need it.

20. Be as courageous as you can.  If none of us is prepared to die for freedom, then all of 

us will die under tyranny.

These lessons are the openings of the twenty chapters of On Tyranny, which has been updated to account for the Big Lie, the coup attempt, the war in Ukraine, and the risks we face in 2024.  On Tyranny has also been published in a beautiful graphic edition, illustrated by Nora Krug.https://clc.overdrive.com/media/5727494?cid=1545173

Recommended Reading
Ur-fascism Umberto Eco (1997 article)
Ur-fascism and Neo-fascism Andrew Johnson (2020 article)

Adorno write of such a danger.

“National Socialism lives on, and even today we still do not know whether it is merely the ghost of what was so monstrous that it lingers on after its own death, or whether it has not yet died at all, whether the willingness to commit the unspeakable survives in people as well as in the conditions that enclose them.”

How to Spot a Fascist  Terry Trowbridge (2022 article)
The Anatomy of Fascism Robert Paxton 2006 book
Global Capitalism and the Crisis of Humanity Bill Robinson 2014 book