Bill Maher was covered over at RawStory as he hosted Yale historian Timothy Snyder who talked about his new book Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century. If you don't want to link to RawStory or Bill Maher I have a YouTube link from a C-SPAN interview below as Blogger doesn't support VIDME embedding, the video format used by the RawStory post. But you should watch them both as it gives a much better picture of what prof. Snyder is most likely trying to convey. From RawStory:
1) Don't obey in advance,..“don’t follow what everyone else is doing… figure out what you stand for and be yourself.”
2) Defend institutions. Many anticipate that “the institution will save us” but Snyder said that this kind of thinking is wrong. “We have to save the institutions. They don’t do it on their own. This is the moment of ‘ask not what the institutions can do for you. Ask what you can do for the institutions.'”
3) Believe in the truth. “Without truth, we don’t have trust. Without trust, we don’t have the rule of law. Without the rule of law, we don’t have democracy.”
And the books table of contents from C-SPAN wherein they discuss #17 in some detail:
I guess you should just purchase the book.
But none of this is rocket science unless you are living in an alternate reality where whatever you want to believe in is a fact. Because you want it to be, a fact. It's very much like thinking that the organic disrupting power of electricity above a certain voltage & current will stop your heart. It's a cool edgy position until you are forced to test the theory. Then you are dead.
There is nothing shocking being discussed here unless you are living in one of the two bubbles that dominate the discussion. The right, or the left. There are subtle nuances to the two party reality which count not at all. ALL of the positioning is occurring within the two parties, not outside.
1) Don't obey in advance,..“don’t follow what everyone else is doing… figure out what you stand for and be yourself.”
2) Defend institutions. Many anticipate that “the institution will save us” but Snyder said that this kind of thinking is wrong. “We have to save the institutions. They don’t do it on their own. This is the moment of ‘ask not what the institutions can do for you. Ask what you can do for the institutions.'”
3) Believe in the truth. “Without truth, we don’t have trust. Without trust, we don’t have the rule of law. Without the rule of law, we don’t have democracy.”
And the books table of contents from C-SPAN wherein they discuss #17 in some detail:
1. Do not
obey in advance. 17
2. Defend
institutions. 22
3. Beware
the one-party state. 26
4. Take responsibility
for the face of the world. 32
5. Remember
professional ethics. 38
6. Be wary
of paramilitaries. 42
7. Be
reflective if you must be armed. 47
8. Stand
out. 51
9. Be kind
to our language. 59
10. Believe
in truth. 65
11.
Investigate. 72
12. Make
eye contact and small talk. 81
13.
Practice corporeal politics. 83
14.
Establish a private life. 87
15.
Contribute to good causes. 92
16. Learn
from peers in other countries. 95
17. Listen
for dangerous words. 99
18. Be calm
when the unthinkable arrives. 103
19. Be a
patriot. 111
20. Be as
courageous as you can. 119
I guess you should just purchase the book.
But none of this is rocket science unless you are living in an alternate reality where whatever you want to believe in is a fact. Because you want it to be, a fact. It's very much like thinking that the organic disrupting power of electricity above a certain voltage & current will stop your heart. It's a cool edgy position until you are forced to test the theory. Then you are dead.
There is nothing shocking being discussed here unless you are living in one of the two bubbles that dominate the discussion. The right, or the left. There are subtle nuances to the two party reality which count not at all. ALL of the positioning is occurring within the two parties, not outside.
