On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder

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On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder

On Tyranny is a book by Timothy Snyder which focuses on the rule of president Donald trump and suggests that Americans should be aware of what is expected of them as well as what they should do and make sure that they do not fall victims of authoritative nature of his rule. The notion of president trump becoming an authoritative leaders came just immediately after he was elected and this book was conceived as a twitter post then it became a reality. In the book Snyder discusses 20 different ways Americans should look out for themselves and avoid being trapped in a situation which is very difficult to get themselves out. This paper discusses these two ways Snyder discusses and how Americans received the leadership of president Donald trump in the face of conflicts and other arguments of what his main goal as president was.

Firstly, Snyder begins by warning the Americans that there is no democracy which is strong enough to resist change. This is especially in terms of authoritative governance when the person who wants to be authoritative and in this case with regards to president Donald trump has enough plans on how to execute his plan. He further affirms that the checks and balances which were established by the founding fathers had a reason so that one arm of the government was not too powerful and therefore an authoritative governance tries to break the institutions which are given the responsibility of upholding these checks and balances (Snyder, 2017). This means that when the institutions are not able to deal with the presidents’ ‘evil’ dealings it becomes very easy for such kind of leader to change the country leadership from democracy into authoritative like in the Holocaust whereby violence was very highly demonstrated.

The first rule which Snyder brings out in his book is the ‘do not obey in advance’ rule this means that Americans should not just be obedient to the president without looking into the direction he is going and what he could do when he receives the support of most of the Americans. He clearly states that tyranny succeeds by first winning the obedience of the masses and then using that obedience against the masses. He gives a clear example of how tyrants like Adolf Hitler got to be trusted by their people and then due to that trust they developed a kind of leadership which made the people suffer and, in the end, it is the people who allowed such kind of people to lead them in such a way.

The second rule which is also of great essence is the defending of institutions. As stated above leaders who want to introduce authoritative kind of governance deal with the institutions so that the members of such institutions will not be able to look out after the leader when he does wrong or tries to compromise the democracy (Snyder, 2017). Therefore, Snyder urges Americans to defend the institutions which defend their democracy and through their defending they will have the checks in place to avoid the country from falling into authoritative hands.

The third rule he states that Americans should be aware of one-party state. This means that the one-party state should never exist because without an opposition the president’s party gets the power to run the country in the manner they way since the voice to criticize them is faint or even non-existent. This however is significant in united states which has two major political parties and the others just very small or young political parties which affiliate themselves with either democratic or republicans.

The other rule Snyder states that Americans must take responsibility and face the world. This means that they have to reject showing off what the leaders want them to show off. For instance, hate, loyalty or exclusion which even comes into their private lives. The other very important part is that he urges Americans to remembers their professional ethics. Some professions have very strict ethics and even a career like doctors and nurses must take an oath (Snyder, 2017). He urges Americans to uphold these professional ethics of individuals like doctors, lawyers, and businessmen. He gives an example of how Adolf Hitler wanted his people to obey him and get away from the professional ethics and through this he demands that people stick to their ethics.

On military force, Snyder states that people should be warry about secret military force or death squads which the people in power use to enforce their ideologies. He discusses a lot of things which make sense to the Americans and indeed very important. Therefore, it is a good point to look into while at the same time not being too worried that the president cannot be allowed to work and dispense his duties. It is a positive book which arouses Americans will to maintain democracy and fight for what they belief it is true.

Reference

Snyder, T. (2017). On tyranny: Twenty lessons from the twentieth century. Random House.