Lessons
from ON TYRANNY – INCO Book Club
Members of
the INCO Book Club read a fascinating new book, “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons
from the Twentieth Century,” by Timothy Snyder, at their first meeting on July
10. They identified these
lessons as most significant or timely:
·
3. Beware the one-party state. Hitler never had a majority vote, but
he co-opted other small parties to establish a one-party State. We’re vulnerable now with neither of
our major parties being highly regarded.
·
10. Believe in truth. To abandon truth is to abandon freedom. This is “magical thinking.” Also “post-truth is pre-fascism.”
·
13. Practice corporeal politics. Get outside. Put your body in
unfamiliar places and among groups that were not previously your friends. March! Demonstrate!
·
18. Be calm when the unthinkable happens. Tyranny is fear management. They use these events to consolidate
power. Don’t fall for it even if you’re fearful and it’s difficult.
·
19. Be a patriot. The president is a nationalist, not a patriot. He encourages us to be our worse, then calls us the best. A nationalist has no universal ethics,
values or aesthetic. A patriot
wants the nation to live up to its ideals and be our best selves.
The book club’s next book is “The Revolution of Hope:
Toward a Humanized Technology” by Erich Fromm. Although this book was published in 1968
– nearly 50 years ago - it reads as if it were just published!
For information about the next meeting – Thursday,
August 24, at 6:30 pm – and for getting a copy of the book, contact Carolyn
Eady at cebeady@outlook.com.
