Living ~400lbs

If you carry a weapon in public service, may God bless you and keep you. But know that evils of the past involved policemen and soldiers finding themselves, one day, doing irregular things. Be ready to say no. – From On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century (p. 47) by Timothy Snyder Many of […]

When the men with guns who have always claimed to be against the system start wearing uniforms and marching with torches and pictures of a leader, the end is nigh. When the pro-leader paramilitary and the official police and military intermingle, the end has come. From On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century (p. […]

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. From On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth […]

You might one day be offered the opportunity to display symbols of loyalty. Make sure that such symbols include your fellow citizens rather than exclude them. Even the history of lapel pins is far from innocent. In Nazi Germany in 1933, people wore lapel pins that said “Yes” during the elections and referendum that confirmed […]

Get ready to vote

“[C]hoose an institution you care about—a court, a newspaper, a law, a labor union—and take its side.” – from Timothy Snyder’s book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century (p. 22). The reasoned, learned people running the non-Nazi newspapers in Germany did not believe that the Nazis would really close down non-Nazi media, or […]

From Timothy Snyder’s book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century (p. 17). In early 1938, Adolf Hitler, by then securely in power in Germany, was threatening to annex neighboring Austria. After the Austrian chancellor conceded, it was the Austrians’ anticipatory obedience that decided the fate of Austrian Jews. Local Austrian Nazis captured Jews […]

This is a small book containing information that’s both obvious and – at times – surprising. I’ve been meaning to post about it and failing. I bribed myself to try again by … getting the ebook from the library, because I can cut-and-paste from the ebook easier than paper. So expect to see some posts […]