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jenny_islanderI continue with my reading of On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder.
"Lesson 17: Listen for dangerous words. Be alert to the use of the words extremism and terrorism. Be alive to the fatal notion of emergency and exception. Be angry about the treacherous use of patriotic vocabulary."
Or, in the words of an older text, "You know a tree by its fruits."
Extremism, Snyder says, always and only means something far from the mainstream. It could be anything. The danger is that--as Snyder has shown repeatedly--tyrants wish you to believe that what they want is the mainstream. So they call all sorts of things that are contrary to tyranny extremism, by which they mean that those things are bad and should be shunned or destroyed. Giving food to people who have no food and water to those who have no water have been defined in the media as extremist acts. When you see or hear the word extremism, consider who is talking and what they have done with their power. You know a tree by its fruits.
Terrorism is certainly an evil act, but tyrants want you to be so afraid of terrorism that you accept the tyrant's lie that you cannot be both free and safe. The goal of actual terrorism is to get people to react instead of acting. The goal of labeling something terrorism when it isn't terrorism, or talking a lot about terrorists who are surely on the way or among you right now, is the same. Or, as a certain tyrant supporter said of the subjects of his tyrant, "I hold up a lie and they jump through it" like well-trained circus animals. If someone says that you should change how you live because of terrorism, take a deep breath, look away from their faces, and look, again, at the fruits of their actions.
As for emergencies and exceptions, Snyder cites legal theorist Carl Schmitt, who he describes as the most intelligent member of his tyrannical party. "The way to destroy all rules, he explained, was to focus on the idea of the exception...manufacturing a general conviction that the present moment is exceptional, and then transforming that state of exception into a permanent emergency. Citizens then trade real freedom for fake safety."
And then there is the misuse of patriotism. We have all seen and heard it. I find it difficult to describe without ranting. I will say here only that in my experience, the politicians who make the most extravagant, expensive, and prolonged displays of patriotic fervor tend to be the worst at doing the work of democracy; and that I trust someone who refuses to stand for the national anthem on moral grounds far more than someone who flies an enormous flag from the back of his truck twenty-four hours a day and does not notice that when he stops his car the flag drags in the mud.
"Lesson 17: Listen for dangerous words. Be alert to the use of the words extremism and terrorism. Be alive to the fatal notion of emergency and exception. Be angry about the treacherous use of patriotic vocabulary."
Or, in the words of an older text, "You know a tree by its fruits."
Extremism, Snyder says, always and only means something far from the mainstream. It could be anything. The danger is that--as Snyder has shown repeatedly--tyrants wish you to believe that what they want is the mainstream. So they call all sorts of things that are contrary to tyranny extremism, by which they mean that those things are bad and should be shunned or destroyed. Giving food to people who have no food and water to those who have no water have been defined in the media as extremist acts. When you see or hear the word extremism, consider who is talking and what they have done with their power. You know a tree by its fruits.
Terrorism is certainly an evil act, but tyrants want you to be so afraid of terrorism that you accept the tyrant's lie that you cannot be both free and safe. The goal of actual terrorism is to get people to react instead of acting. The goal of labeling something terrorism when it isn't terrorism, or talking a lot about terrorists who are surely on the way or among you right now, is the same. Or, as a certain tyrant supporter said of the subjects of his tyrant, "I hold up a lie and they jump through it" like well-trained circus animals. If someone says that you should change how you live because of terrorism, take a deep breath, look away from their faces, and look, again, at the fruits of their actions.
As for emergencies and exceptions, Snyder cites legal theorist Carl Schmitt, who he describes as the most intelligent member of his tyrannical party. "The way to destroy all rules, he explained, was to focus on the idea of the exception...manufacturing a general conviction that the present moment is exceptional, and then transforming that state of exception into a permanent emergency. Citizens then trade real freedom for fake safety."
And then there is the misuse of patriotism. We have all seen and heard it. I find it difficult to describe without ranting. I will say here only that in my experience, the politicians who make the most extravagant, expensive, and prolonged displays of patriotic fervor tend to be the worst at doing the work of democracy; and that I trust someone who refuses to stand for the national anthem on moral grounds far more than someone who flies an enormous flag from the back of his truck twenty-four hours a day and does not notice that when he stops his car the flag drags in the mud.
