Snyder defends print media and celebrates some aspects of the mainstream media while critiquing others. In fact, devotes a fair bit of this small book to the media. Despite the book’s subtitle, Snyder is not oblivious to this.
Some would argue that the internet has changed the game. Of course, while we may distil the past century to discover some fundamental lessons, the world has rapidly moved on. Like Hitler, the president used the word ‘lies’ to mean statements of fact not to his liking, and presented journalism as a campaign against himself. When many refrain from comparing any contemporary politician or political manoeuvre to Hitler and the Nazis, arguing that it is either inexact, unfair or unhelpful Snyder has no such qualms of making such comparisons where he can justify them. The party the exercises such control proposes few policies that are popular with society at large, and several that are generally unpopular – and thus must either fear democracy or weaken it. We believe that we have checks and balances, but have rarely faced a situation like the present: when the less popular of the two parties controls every lever of power at the federal level, as well as the majority of statehouses. The odd American idea that giving money to political campaigns is free speech means that the very rich have far more speech, and so in effect far more voting power, than other citizens. Especially when, in Lesson 3: Beware the One Party State, he says:Ī party emboldened by a favourable election result or motivated by ideology, or both, might change the system from within. When I began reading On Tyranny, I wondered if Snyder would only speak in general terms or would he cite specific examples and call out those he sees as responsible for the present political situation. Snyder argues that these lessons will give those who want to preserve democracy the advantage when the unthinkable happens. Snyder’s message here is that there are powerful lessons to learn from past failures and we will be best served by acknowledging these lessons and changing our perspective and behaviour accordingly. A recent spate of divisive and problematic elections and referendums – not to mention the subversive activity of autocrats hoping to destroy the call for democracy at home by poisoning it abroad – has led some to suggest that democracy is in decline in the West. The twentieth century witnessed much of this failure as three bursts of democracy – following each World War and the collapse of the Soviet Union – were for the most part unsuccessful.
Timothy Snyder begins his book with a warning that the history of democracy is a history of failure. If democracy survives its current challenges, will the lessons contained in this book have a role? In an era where the countries assumed to be the safehouses of democracy have shown the world their vulnerability, and several others have shown real fragility, On Tyranny has become a best-seller. In a short, impactful book, Snyder spares over-analysis in favour of prescription to motivate the otherwise complacent on whom the saving of democracy will depend, or to prepare them for the moment they did not believe would come.
In On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder condenses what he believes to be the key lessons from the historical and contemporary instances where democracy has been subverted, crippled and destroyed.
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