From “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century” by Timothy Snyder As observers of totalitarianism such as Victor Klemperer noticed, truth dies in four modes. The first mode is the open hostility to verifiable reality, which takes the form of presenting inventions and lies as if they were facts. In 2017, the American president …
From “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century” by Timothy Snyder When we think of the Nazi Holocaust of the Jews, we imagine Auschwitz and mechanized impersonal death. This was a convenient way for Germans to remember the Holocaust, since they could claim that few of them had known exactly what had happened behind …
Without the conformists, the great atrocities would have been impossible Read More »
From “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century” by Timothy Snyder Anticipatory obedience is a political tragedy. Perhaps rulers did not initially know that citizens were willing to compromise this value or that principle. Perhaps a new regime did not at first have the direct means of influencing citizens one way or another. After …
