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jenny_islanderSomething is telling me to post the next lesson in On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder now. So here goes. Maybe somebody out there needs to read this sooner rather than later.
"Lesson 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...The moment you set an example, the spell of the status quo is broken, and others will follow."
This is the longest chapter so far. Snyder offers many examples of people who stood out whose names have become bywords. These were people who made great speeches and got into the news. They organized, coordinated, and marched. But he also talks about people who did very quiet things, never engaging with tyranny, rather evading and blindsiding the tyrants in ways that were not detected. In particular, he talks about a high school girl who, without telling anyone, sneaked into a neighborhood that the tyrant had designated for the sequestration of undesirables to some then-unpublicized end. She secretly brought the inmates food and medicine for two years. She stood out to people who felt helpless, like there was nothing to do but wait. She convinced four people to sneak out with her, thereby saving their lives. Standing out only to a few people is still standing out.
He also points out that simply behaving normally is standing out, when the bizarre dreams of tyranny are being realized on the streets. Hospitality, charity, mercy, and other simple human gestures are gross offenses to tyranny. They make tyranny look weak. Find acts of humanity that tyranny cannot quash and do them repeatedly, where at least one despairing person can see.
As with other lessons I have discussed here, the opportunity can be very simple, and very quick. Once upon a time there were some people who were trying to get out of a police trap. They had been attempting a peaceful march, but the police had decided to kettle them--to force them into a neighborhood with no egress, crowd into them, and then announce that the inevitable body contact was aggression and arrest them all. The police were announcing on camera that they were going to protect the nice law-abiding people who lived at the end of that cul de sac from the evil people on their sidewalk. They were getting ready for the final push.
So one of the people who lived on that cul de sac opened his front door and let the marchers inside.
They all got to go home.
"Lesson 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...The moment you set an example, the spell of the status quo is broken, and others will follow."
This is the longest chapter so far. Snyder offers many examples of people who stood out whose names have become bywords. These were people who made great speeches and got into the news. They organized, coordinated, and marched. But he also talks about people who did very quiet things, never engaging with tyranny, rather evading and blindsiding the tyrants in ways that were not detected. In particular, he talks about a high school girl who, without telling anyone, sneaked into a neighborhood that the tyrant had designated for the sequestration of undesirables to some then-unpublicized end. She secretly brought the inmates food and medicine for two years. She stood out to people who felt helpless, like there was nothing to do but wait. She convinced four people to sneak out with her, thereby saving their lives. Standing out only to a few people is still standing out.
He also points out that simply behaving normally is standing out, when the bizarre dreams of tyranny are being realized on the streets. Hospitality, charity, mercy, and other simple human gestures are gross offenses to tyranny. They make tyranny look weak. Find acts of humanity that tyranny cannot quash and do them repeatedly, where at least one despairing person can see.
As with other lessons I have discussed here, the opportunity can be very simple, and very quick. Once upon a time there were some people who were trying to get out of a police trap. They had been attempting a peaceful march, but the police had decided to kettle them--to force them into a neighborhood with no egress, crowd into them, and then announce that the inevitable body contact was aggression and arrest them all. The police were announcing on camera that they were going to protect the nice law-abiding people who lived at the end of that cul de sac from the evil people on their sidewalk. They were getting ready for the final push.
So one of the people who lived on that cul de sac opened his front door and let the marchers inside.
They all got to go home.
