40 pages • 1 hour read
Timothy SnyderOn Tyranny
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 12-17Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 12 Summary: “Make eye contact and small talk.”
In a tyranny, one sign that someone has become a target of the state is that other people begin to avoid contact with them. For this reason, it is wise in any political climate always to cultivate connections with others: “Having old friends is the politics of last resort. And making new ones is the first step toward change” (82).
Chapter 13 Summary: “Practice corporeal politics.”
An important pushback against tyranny is the formation of movements made up of real people who are willing to stand up to tyrants. In Communist Poland between 1968 and 1989, several demonstrations are put down, yet from these a labor union, Solidarity, forms among workers, students, and intellectuals who don't agree about everything but share the common cause of protest against the government.
Finally, in 1989, the government relents: “The labor union insisted on elections, which it then won. This was the beginning of the end of communism in Poland, eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union” (85).
Chapter 14 Summary: “Establish a private life.”
During the US election campaign of 2016, many people’s private electronic communications are released publicly. Some emails are released out of context and are misinterpreted. The media, focused on the often sensational contents of these documents, fails to notice the gross violation of privacy that they represent.
Totalitarians want us to have no real privacy, where we can think for ourselves; instead, they distract us with sensational stories taken from others’ private lives. When we fall for this, we “participate in the demolition of our own political order” (90), with the result that society collapses into a mob.
Chapter 15 Summary: “Contribute to good causes.”
It’s important to cultivate associations with neighbors, to participate in organized groups and nonprofits, and to partake of hobbies with others. In this way we create civil society, which is anathema to tyrants: “In the twentieth century, all the major enemies of freedom were hostile to non-governmental organizations, charities, and the like” (94). Today in India, Turkey, and Russia, for example, authoritarian regimes are “highly allergic to the idea of free associations” (94).
Chapter 16 Summary: “Learn from peers in other countries.”
Eastern Europeans seem more aware of the dangers of “cyberwar and fake news” (96) than do Americans. In Ukraine, Russian-inspired rumors are quickly countered, whereas in the US, Russian online troll news is taken as fact.
Americans are free to travel, but “most Americans do not have passports” (98), which limits their ability to visit other parts of the world and listen to different perspectives, especially from people who have gone through the political problems the US faces today.
Chapter 17 Summary: “Listen for dangerous words.”
The Nazis in Germany transcend the old rules by pointing out exceptions and asserting that those exceptions constitute ongoing emergencies; “[c]itizens then trade real freedom for fake safety” (100).
It’s not a given that a people must sacrifice freedom for safety, however: “When politicians invoke terrorism they are speaking, of course, of an actual danger. But when they try to train us to surrender freedom in the name of safety, we should be on our guard" (100). Submitting to authority may feel safe, “but it is not the same thing as actual safety” (100).
Likewise, “When tyrants speak of extremists, they just mean people who are not in the mainstream—as the tyrants themselves are defining that mainstream at that particular moment” (101). Extremists, under a tyranny, are simply people who are not in step with the tyrant. Ironically, the most extreme member of society is the tyrant himself.
Chapters 12-17 Analysis
A free society needs a thriving civic life, a lively and participatory citizenry who, joining with their neighbors, build up a sense of belonging, involvement, and investment in the people around them. A tyrant, on the other hand, wants none of this, as any connections between people that don’t involve him are potential threats to his rule. Snyder suggests several ways people can help inoculate their country against tyranny by participating in community activities.
As in Chapters 9 through 11, much mention is made of the importance of cultivating knowledge, from the simplicity of small talk to the challenge of reaching out to people in other countries. All of this enlarges people’s mental life, which inculcates a natural resistance to authoritarian dictates that rely on unthinking, dumb obedience.
The final sign that tyranny is nigh is the use of emergencies—terrorist attacks, wars—as rallying points for greater government control over the lives of individuals. This principle is a linchpin of the book and, in some ways, the most important single danger sign of impending tyranny. Unfortunately, it is often the last sign of trouble before a republic is toppled. Snyder fears America is at risk of succumbing to demagogic rhetoric, including the exploitation of emergencies as building blocks of dictatorship.
Forewarned is forearmed, and it’s wise to be wary of the demagogue’s use of fear as a weapon. It should be pointed out that emergencies already have been used many times in American history, not to establish tyranny but to enable military expeditions. The 1898 Spanish-American War begins because a US battleship, the Maine, blows up in Havana harbor. Two North Vietnamese attacks on a US patrol ship in the Gulf of Tonkin bring about the major buildup of the Vietnam War. The 9/11 attacks result in the Patriot Act and other legislation that lead to a US invasion of Iraq.
Each of these “emergencies” turns out to be false: the Maine blew up by accident; only one Gulf of Tonkin attack occurred, and it was part of an ongoing skirmish started by the US; 9/11 was caused by Afghan operatives, not Iraqis. In every case, much is made of little, and the American people acquiesce in a huge buildup of military power and latitude.
Though American democracy has survived each of these, every incident causes an increase in the authority of the central government. Thus, though American traditions of freedom go deep, the growing encrustation of government grows heavy. Eventually, American democracy could become as fragile as those that fell in 20th-century Europe.
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