How to resist tyrants: On Tyranny book review

This book was written in 2017 clearly with a dual purpose.

First, Timothy Snyder provides excellent historical analysis on the defining characteristics of the tyrannical systems of the twentieth century and how we, today, can prevent those sorts of systems from developing in our own country.

His second purpose was to respond to the then recent election of President Donald Trump, who he saw as a genuine threat to democracy and a bit tyrannical himself.

If you can get through some of the fear-based and eye-roll-worthy statements surrounding an unpredictable Trump, Snyder delivers some excellent insight on how the past one hundred years can help us build a better next one hundred years.

My Favorite Insights

More Money Buys More Free Speech (Ch. 3)

In the magical world of the United States of America, we allow for a very strange practice that allows the very wealthy to monetarily influence the people who make decisions on behalf of all citizens.

We have strange confidence in our voting system. On paper, it seems to make sense. Each person, rich or poor, gets one vote. It is equal. It is just.

But things are not as equal as it seems.

We all have the ability to call or send letters to our politicians. We can have a role in our local governments. But if we want to be with the people in power at the top of the chain, the only people in the room with those individuals are those with money.

We all have free speech and can use that speech to send a postcard to our senators. But those with higher net worth, they have the ability so wine and dine our senators. Who do you think they listen to most closely?

Giving money to political campaigns is protected under the right to freedom of speech. Therefore, we have monetized free speech, and it is clear some have more free speech than others.

We need legislation to ban this type of corruption.

Being Courageous, Standing Out, Are Roadblocks to Unhealthy Regimes (Chs. 1, 5, 7, 8, 20)

Humans are good at rules. We like rules, and tend to follow them when given by a perceived authority. When we play a game, we tend to read the rules of the game first. We spend a lot of time talking about rule-makers; kings and queens, presidents and governors. We even often perceive God and our relationship to God primarily about rules.

And yet, there are occasions when breaking the tendency to just follow along is necessary for the betterment of society. Sometimes, rule-makers are corrupt, and the game is not equitable.

Asking questions of our rulers is a healthy check and balance to the power our rule-makers hold.

One of my favorite writings discussing the nature of manliness says that true manliness is being so sure of self that the man can stand up between the power of the tyrant and those the tyrant oppresses. When the rules of the game begin to beat down to widow, the orphan, the poor, the immigrant, those with strength in their legs must have the courage to stand for the weak and bear the burden. We can never be afraid to stand out.

“It is those who were considered exceptional, eccentric, or even insane in their own time — those who did not change when the world around them did — whom we remember and admire today.” (52)

“If none of us is prepared to die for freedom, then all of us will die under tyranny.” (115)

Don’t become stuck in a single view of the world (Ch. 9, 16)

The irony of this theme is that the author himself seems wholly stuck in a single point of view and is frankly as much a danger to democracy as Trump is. When Trump was nearly assassinated the first time, there was no remorse from Snyder for the inciting comments he has made surrounding Trump. Assassinating candidates is more than a threat to democracy, something Snyder seems to overlook.

I find this point a true danger, and find it interesting that Snyder can make such an important point in spite of his blind spots. We can become stuck in a single point of view, both on the left and right.

Social media does not help with this. Social media is the number one way people hear the news. But the algorithm on social media tends to give us the news we want to hear, not what we need to hear. The goal of social media is not to give you honest, unbiased information. The goal is to get you addicted to the app, to spend more time on your phone, inciting emotions in you that you click from link to link. The best way to do that is to learn what you want to see, and keep showing you that stuff.

Snyder says and I agree, that one of the ways to beat the addiction to screens is reading a book. Or lots of books, rather. If the world is trying to sell you on a single story, we must look outside that story in other texts to develop for ourselves frameworks and concepts. Books slow you down, allow your brain to function and wrap itself around new stories and ideas, and allow you to begin crafting something new.

The second way to gain perspective is traveling, as well as forming long-term friendships with people in other states or countries. I have seen this in my own life by attending a school in Oregon. As a small town Ohio boy, I had certain, often negative, perceptions of my west coast brothers and sisters. After spending considerable time with them, I learned that all of the negative stereotypes of these people were wrong. That if, instead of listening to the news, you spend time with people in that place, a real love is formed for the things you once feared.

Invest in your country, “you get what you pay for” (Ch. 2, 11, 15)

We live in a cultural moment where institutions of all types have lost the trust of the community. And this is really bad. Institutions need to change, and many have done many corrupt things. But, institutions hold an important voice in society which connects us to voices of the past and the future.

When Hitler took power, a large Jewish editorial was published saying that because of institutions in place in Germany, Hitler would not be actually willing to treat the Jews as he and the Nazi party claimed they would.

But so much trust had been lost in the institutions at that point that when Hitler began to oppress the Jews there was no one supporting the institutions to actually balance the Nazi power.

When we lose so much trust in religion, in government, in doctors, in judges, in newspapers, our institutions lose their authority to protect against tyrants.

Are we already there?

Each of us ought to commit to something, to making it better. I know that for me, the institution of the Church is something I am dedicating my life to, in hopes of repairing trust between the institution and the people.

I think the Church has the best chance of checking the power of tyrants.

Commit to in-person community (Ch. 12, 13, 14)

My favorite conversations are when I get together with someone I disagree with and we have a pleasant conversation. Often I learn something I hadn’t before. Grace wells up from my soul, that my blinders are lowered, and I see the human I am with. Even if they are wrong, I realize they have some things right in their belief.

It is so important to surround yourself with people you don’t agree with. Who are different from you. And in shared spaces with them, you are able to present grace, compassion, and humility. To be free to change your mind if you are the one who is wrong.

Meister Eckhart has a great line where he says “Truth is something so noble that if God could turn aside from it, I could keep to the truth and let God go.”

Do you have this sort of humility in you conversing with others?

This sort of community should not happen over a message board, but at a coffee shop, on a walk in a park, outside a library. In person.

Why is this style of in-person community important? Because gathering is a form of resistance against tyranny. If we gather in the pursuit of truth, unafraid to have any conversation, then we also would be willing and able to gather in resistance against evil regimes.

If we gather when we don’t have to, we will have pathways to gather when we need to.

If push comes to shove, if the world truly does begin to collapse around us, “those who escape and survive generally know people who they can trust” (82). Even if the world at large isn’t collapsing, but your personal world is, it is important to have friends to pick you up and begin putting together the pieces with you.

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