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jenny_islander"Lesson 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."
Snyder goes on to detail just a few horrifying examples of the many, many highly educated professionals who found that, under tyranny, their ethical standards aligned neatly with the proclamation of the tyrant. I did not know until I read this book that, to cite only one of them, the Governor-General of Occupied Poland had been his tyrant's personal attorney, and that he left a written defense of his choices.
Snyder speaks of willing collusion and action in service of the tyrant. I extend his lesson to submission and silence.
I am a very minor cog in a small, local institution whose ethical mandate requires the full teaching of the history of our community. This, of course, flies directly in the face of tyranny, which demands a valorizing tale of former purity and might besmirched by whichever group the latest tyrant has chosen to attack as a demonstration of strength. Our organization has already had the meeting about how we will respond if tyranny tries to tell us what to do. Has yours?
Snyder goes on to detail just a few horrifying examples of the many, many highly educated professionals who found that, under tyranny, their ethical standards aligned neatly with the proclamation of the tyrant. I did not know until I read this book that, to cite only one of them, the Governor-General of Occupied Poland had been his tyrant's personal attorney, and that he left a written defense of his choices.
Snyder speaks of willing collusion and action in service of the tyrant. I extend his lesson to submission and silence.
I am a very minor cog in a small, local institution whose ethical mandate requires the full teaching of the history of our community. This, of course, flies directly in the face of tyranny, which demands a valorizing tale of former purity and might besmirched by whichever group the latest tyrant has chosen to attack as a demonstration of strength. Our organization has already had the meeting about how we will respond if tyranny tries to tell us what to do. Has yours?
