Editor’s Note: This column does not represent the opinion of Beaver’s Digest. This column reflects the personal opinions of the writer.

Timothy Snyder, Yale history professor and author of the ever so timely book “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century,” writes: 

“The hero of a David Lodge novel says that you don’t know, when you make love for the last time, that you are making love for the last time. Voting is like that. Some of the Germans who voted for the Nazi Party in 1932 no doubt understood that this might be the last meaningfully free election, but most did not.” 

Snyder’s book takes us through the political atrocities of the 20th century, providing context, history and an education. Examples include the holocaust and the Nazi rise to power, the Soviet Union under the rule of Joseph Stalin, as well as Russian political injustices from the late 20th century and early 21st century. 

While these lessons are widely applicable, Snyder clearly implies that these must be applied here in America. 

It would seem we are at an interesting point in the history of our country. At least, it sure feels that way. We have just recovered from a pandemic and dealt with four years of a morally-relative and power-hungry president (President Trump).  

We have another election in our midst, just a few months away, and I believe this will be one of the most important elections we have had in a long time. 

Donald Trump has clearly displayed intense malice and strident negligence to our democratic agreement, our social contract. He is a threat to our democracy and must be kept far away from the Oval Office. Even Snyder’s book, which was written in 2020, often references President Trump, indirectly, of course. For example, in his chapter titled “Be a patriot” Snyder writes:

“What is patriotism? Let us begin with what patriotism is not. It is not patriotic to dodge the draft and to mock war heroes and their families. It is not patriotic to discriminate against active-duty members of the armed forces in one’s companies, or to campaign to keep disabled veterans away from one’s property. It is not patriotic to compare one’s search for sexual partners…” and so on. 

To jog your memory: Trump called Americans who died in war ‘losers’ and ‘suckers.’ 

Trump has also echoed authoritarian rhetoric, committing to “root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin.” Or saying that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.”

Additionally, Snyder reminds us that Trump has claimed the American “media has been unbelievably dishonest,” has “banned reporters from his rallies,” has “used the word ‘lies’ to mean facts not to his liking,” and “called journalists ‘enemies of the people’.” Snyder explains that Hitler and the Nazis had used the same language. 

While some might think I am participating in needless fear-mongering or am over exaggerating the situation, I think many survivors of authoritarianism would dissent, arguing that it is far safer to assume the worst. We should be prepared.

With such an important election coming up, now is the perfect time to read a book like “On Tyranny,” a book whose epigraph, a quote from Polish philosopher and historian Leszek Kołakowski, reads “In politics, being deceived is no excuse.” 

Of the 20 lessons covered in the short book (it’s only 120 pages!), I would like to talk about a few. 

One of the most important, and well placed, lessons is the first one: “Do not obey in advance.” Snyder writes: “Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given.”

He opens this chapter with the annexation of Austria by Adolf Hitler. In 1938, the Austrian chancellor relinquished power, in an act Snyder calls “anticipatory obedience,” which sealed the fate for the Austrian Jews.  

Snyder explains that the “anticipatory obedience” of Austria showed the Nazis that taking power was an achievable end. It was a kick start to their reign of terror. 

Snyder also references the famous Stanley Milgram experiment. After the second World War, Milgram devised an experiment to uncover the psychology of Nazi obedience. In this experiment, individuals were asked to participate as “teachers” in a study on learning and they were to deliver electric shocks to the “learners” (hired actors) upon the word of an authority. Snyder writes:

“They are surprisingly willing to harm and kill others in the service of some new purpose if they are so instructed by a new authority.”

Another important chapter, “Be kind to our language,” discusses the importance of language and media in the context of information and propaganda. Its byline reads “Avoid pronouncing the phrases everyone else does. Think up your own way of speaking … separate yourself from the internet. Read books.”

In this chapter, Snyder says it is crucial to examine our language and how it is fed to us. For example, he addresses Victor Klemperer, a survivor of the Nazi reign and a scholar, who commented on the language of Nazi propaganda. As Snyder puts it:

“(Klemperer) noticed how Hitler’s language rejected legitimate opposition: ‘The people’ always meant some people and not others (an American president said ‘my people’).” 

Snyder also discusses the importance of getting off of the internet. He says we have allowed this “collective trance to be normal. We have slowly fallen into it.” He says that when we blindly participate in the language of “daily media,” we lose access to a much “larger framework” of knowledge and education. 

The key to overcoming this, argues Snyder, is reading, “So get the screens out of your room and surround yourself with books.”

Reading books, especially the classics, as Snyder suggests, opens us up to timeless knowledge. It gives us a window into the hearts and minds of people who know more than us and have experienced more than us. It makes us more empathetic, knowledgeable, and less susceptible to the baseness of social media and visual news (Fox News, CNN, etc). 

Snyder suggests books like “The Brothers Karamazov” by Fyodor Dostoevsky (which happens to be my favorite book), as well as “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” by Milan Kundera. Earlier in the chapter he also mentions popular novels like George Orwell’s “1984,” and Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451.”  

As Snyder says, these books better our “ability to think about ambiguous situations and judge the intentions of others.”

The last chapter I will discuss is entitled “Make eye contact and small talk.” 

While it may seem trivial, understanding those around you through nonverbal communication is hugely important to democracy. Snyder explains that we will “want to know the psychological landscape” of our peers. If we can’t look our friends in the eye, how can we be expected to defend each other in the face of tyranny?

Snyder’s book provides us with an excellent overview of the 20th century, arguably the bloodiest century in human history, and shows how even in America, a place where the Constitution is often taken for granted, we are never immune from tyranny and authoritarianism.

Go and vote this November!