Quote of the Day

For tyrants, the lesson of the [German] Reichstag fire [of 1933] is that one moment of shock enables an eternity of submission.  For us, the lesson is that our natural fear and grief must not enable the destruction of our institutions.  Courage does not mean not fearing, or not grieving.  It does mean recognizing and resisting terror management right away, from the moment of the attack, precisely when it seems most difficult to do so.

-- Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny, p. 110

Quote of the Day

When the American president and his national security adviser speak of fighting terrorism alongside Russia, what they are proposing to the American people is terror management: the exploitation of real, dubious, and simulated terror attacks to bring down democracy.  The Russian recap of the first telephone call between the president and Vladimir Putin is telling: The two men "shared the opinion that it is necessary to join forces against the common enemy number one: international terrorism and extremism."

-- Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny, p. 109-110

Quote of the Day

The authoritarians of today are also terror managers, and if anything they are rather more creative [than Hitler].  Consider the current Russian regime, so admired by the president.  Vladimir Putin not only came to power in an incident that strikingly resembled the [German] Reichstag fire, he then used a series of terror attacks -- real, questionable, and fake -- to remove obstacles to total power in Russia and to assault democratic neighbors.

-- Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny, p. 105

Quote of the Day

Hitler had used an act of terror, [the Reichstag fire], an event of limited inherent significance, to institute a regime of terror that killed millions of people and changed the world.

-- Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny, p. 105

Quote of the Day

Modern tyranny is terror management.  When the terrorist attack comes, remember that authoritarians exploit such events in order to consolidate power.  The sudden disaster that requires the end of checks and balances, the dissolution of opposition parties, the suspension of freedom of expression, the right to a fair trial, and so on, is the oldest trick in the Hitlerian book.  Do not fall for it.

-- Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny, p. 103

Quote of the Day

Modern authoritarian regimes, such as Russia, use laws on extremism to punish those who criticize their policies.  In this way the notion of extremism comes to mean virtually everything except what is, in fact, extreme: tyranny.

-- Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny, p. 102

Quote of the Day

When (politicians) try to train us to surrender freedom in the name of safety, we should be on our guard.  There is no necessary tradeoff between the two.  Sometimes we do indeed gain one by losing the other, and sometimes not.  People who assure you that you can only gain security at the price of liberty usually want to deny you both.

-- Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny, p. 100

Quote of the Day

Totalitarianism removes the difference between private and public not just to make individuals unfree, but also to draw the whole society away from normal politics and toward conspiracy theories.  Rather than defining facts or generating interpretations, we are seduced by the notion of hidden realities and dark conspiracies that explain everything.

-- Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny, p. 89-90

Quote of the Day

Once malice is embraced as a virtue, it is impossible to contain.

-- Adam Serwer, "The Cruelty Is the Point"

Quote of the Day

What the great political thinker Hannah Arendt meant by totalitarianism was not an all-powerful state, but the erasure of the difference between private and public life.  We are free only insofar as we exercise control over what people know about us, and in what circumstances they come to know it.

-- Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny, p. 88

Quote of the Day

The choice to be in public depends on the ability to maintain a private sphere of life.  We are free only when it is we ourselves who draw the line between when we are seen and when we are not seen.

-- Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny, p. 86

Quote of the Day

Protest can be organized through social media, but nothing is real that does not end on the streets.  If tyrants feel no consequences for their actions in the three-dimensional world, nothing will change.

-- Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny, p. 84

Quote of the Day

We do not see the minds that we hurt when we publish falsehoods, but that does not mean we do no harm.  Think of driving a car.  We may not see the other driver, but we know not to run into his car.  We know that the damage will be mutual.  We protect the other person without seeing him, dozens of times every day.  Likewise, although we may not see the other person in front of his or her computer, we have our share of responsibility for what he or she is reading there.  If we can avoid doing violence to the minds of unseen others on the internet, others will learn to do the same.  And then perhaps our internet traffic will cease to look like one great, bloody accident.

-- Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny, p. 79-80

Quote of the Day

We find it natural that we pay for a plumber or a mechanic, but demand our news for free.  If we did not pay for plumbing or auto repair, we would not expect to drink water or drive cars.  Why then should we form our political judgment on the basis of zero investment?  We get what we pay for.

-- Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny, p. 77

Quote of the Day

While anyone can repost an article, researching and writing is hard work that requires time and money.  Before you deride the "mainstream media," note that it is no longer the mainstream.  It is derision that is mainstream and easy, and actual journalism that is edgy and difficult.  So try for yourself to write a proper article, involving work in the real world: traveling, interviewing, maintaining relationships with sources, researching in written records, verifying everything, writing and revising drafts, all on a tight and unforgiving schedule.  If you find you like doing this, keep a blog.  In the meantime, give credit to those who do all of that for a living.  Journalists are not perfect, any more than people in other vocations are perfect.  But the work of people who adhere to journalistic ethics is of a different quality than the work of those who do not.

-- Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny, p. 76-77

Quote of the Day

It is more rewarding to watch money change the world than watch it accumulate.

-- Gloria Steinem

Quote of the Day

We need print journalists so that stories can develop on the page and in our minds.

-- Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny, p. 75

Quote of the Day

I had to recognize my own dignity as a lesbian before I could be truly effective as an advocate.  Those brave queens at Stonewall had to fight back in 1969 so that they would no longer be subject to arrest simply for being gay.  Evan Wolfson, while still a student at Harvard Law School, had to have the vision to write a paper in 1983 entitled "Samesex Marriage and Morality: The Human Rights Vision of the Constitution."  Mary Bonauto had to bring those first cases in Vermont and Massachusetts when many thought she was being reckless, crazy, or both.  Edie Windsor had to stand up and sue the United States of America to honor her marriage to Thea Spyer.  Jim Obergefell in Ohio and Carla Webb and Joce Pritchett in Mississippi had to go to court to have their marriages legally acknowledged.  Countless other gay men and lesbians had to step forward and demand that their dignity be recognized by their families, neighbors, colleagues, and finally their own government.  And, together, we changed the world.

-- Roberta Kaplan, Then Comes Marriage, p. 322-323

Quote of the Day

During his campaign, the president claimed on a Russian propaganda outlet that American "media has been unbelievably dishonest."  He banned many reporters from his rallies, and regularly elicited hatred of journalists from the public.  Like the leaders of authoritarian regimes, he promised to suppress freedom of speech by laws that would prevent criticism.  Like Hitler, the president used the words lies to mean statements of fact not to his liking, and presented journalism as a campaign against himself.  The president was on friendlier terms with the internet, his source for erroneous information that he passed on to millions of people.

-- Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny, p. 73-74

Quote of the Day

In the end, [our legal team's mantra] "it's all about Edie" is really only another way of saying that it's all about dignity.  While cases, precedents, and constitutional doctrine matter, so do the lives of people targeted by discriminatory laws.

-- Roberta Kaplan, Then Comes Marriage, p. 322

Quote of the Day

The individual who investigates is also the citizen who builds.  The leader who dislikes the investigators is a potential tyrant.

-- Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny, p. 73

A Post for Posterity: Meeting Frank Schaeffer

Four years ago today, Oct. 10, 2014, I had the pleasure of hearing one of my favorite authors/speakers, Frank Schaeffer, at Vanderbilt University.  I was honored to meet him and hear him discuss his latest book (at that time), Why I Am an Atheist Who Believes in God: How to Give Love, Create Beauty and Find Peace.

Quote of the Day

All it takes is one person ... and another ... and another ... and another ... to start a movement.

-- Abraham Joshua Heschel

Salt and Pepper

I was thrilled to hear one of my favorite "salty" authors/speakers, Frank Schaeffer, again last night, along with "peppery" pastor/writer John Pavlovitz, during the Vote Common Good event in Holland, Mich.

Quote of the Day

Generic cynicism makes us feel hip and alternative even as we slip along with our fellow citizens into a morass of indifference.  It is your ability to discern facts that makes you an individual, and our collective trust in common knowledge that makes us a society.

-- Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny, p. 73

Quote of the Day

Sometimes it's the simplest and most obvious things that say the most.

-- Roberta Kaplan, Then Comes Marriage, p. 293

Quote of the Day

Fascists despised the small truths of daily existence, loved slogans that resonated like a new religion, and preferred creative myths to history or journalism.  They used new media, which at the time was radio, to create a drumbeat of propaganda that aroused feelings before people had time to ascertain facts.  And now, as then, many people confused faith in a hugely flawed leader with the truth about the world we all share.  Post-truth is pre-fascism.

-- Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny, p. 71

Quote of the Day

In large part, the reason for this sea change in attitudes toward gay people is the fact that until recently, many Americans simply did not realize that they knew anyone who was gay.  Because of the string of social disapproval and the persistence of discrimination in nearly every facet of everyday existence, for most of the twentieth century and continuing even today, many gay people have lived their lives in the closet so as not to risk losing a job, a home, or the love and support of family and friends.  Without the benefit of knowing and understanding the lives of gay people living openly and with dignity in their communities, many Americans failed to see that gay people and their families have the same aspirations to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as everyone else.

-- Roberta Kaplan, Then Comes Marriage, p. 283

Quote of the Day

What terrified [totalitarianism observer Victor] Klemperer was the way that this transition [from the small truths of individual discernment and experience to misplaced faith] seemed permanent.  Once truth had become oracular rather than factual, evidence was irrelevant.  At the end of the war a worker told Klemperer that "understanding is useless, you have to have faith.  I believe in the Fuhrer."

-- Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny, p. 68-69

Quote of the Day

It is hard to explain to people who have never had to hide a key element of themselves how corrosive it is.  It is not simply that you do not allow others -- your family, your friends, your neighbors -- to truly know you.  It is also that you give up on knowing yourself.  And you give up on that which makes you most human: your capacity to give and accept love.

-- Roberta Kaplan, Then Comes Marriage, p. 27

Quote of the Day

The president's campaign involved the promises of cutting taxes for everyone, eliminating the national debt, and increasing spending on both social policy and national defense.  These promises mutually contradict.  It is as if a farmer said he were taking an egg from the henhouse, boiling it whole and serving it to his wife, and also poaching it and serving it to his children, and then returning it to the hen unbroken, and then watching as the chick hatches.

-- Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny, p. 67-68

Quote of the Day

my heartbeat quickens at
the thought of birthing poems
which is why I will never stop
opening myself up to conceive them...

-- Rupi Kaur, Milk and Honey, p. 200

Quote of the Day

At rallies, the repeated chants of "Build that wall" and "Lock her up" did not describe anything that the president had specific plans to do, but their very grandiosity established a connection between him and his audience.

-- Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny, p. 67