Tyranny and The Founding Fathers–Hal Serrie
Course Description
A course at First Presbyterian Church, Sarasota, Florida
Hendrick Serrie, Ph.D.
Starting Date: Sunday 16 October 2022
Ending Date: Sunday 20 November 2022
What follows are both the audio recordings and supplemental handouts from Dr. Hal Serrie’s class about the threat of authoritarian government in the United States. Dr Serrie, a retired professor of anthropology, structured the class around the chapters of Timothy Snyder’s popular book, On Tyranny. In addition to reviewing the the content of Snyder’s book, Dr. Serrie brought numerous insights to from an anthropologist’s perspective–the academic area in which Serrie has considerable experience.
Since the 1980s our nation has been gripped by multiple crises, and we are so politically divided that some extremists seek to overturn our government through violence. As Christians we are enjoined to reconcile with each other: “Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift at the altar and go. First make things right with your brother or sister and then come back and offer your gift.” (Matthew 5: 23-24).
In this course we will revisit our foundation as the modern world’s first and greatest democracy; study the ways in which the ideologies of Communism, Fascism and Nazism established totalitarian dictatorships that brought suffering and death to millions of people; and consider the ways that people have opposed authoritarian rule.
Hal Serrie is a member of First Presbyterian Church and a retired Professor of Anthropology and International Business at Eckerd College. He has worked in Oaxaca, Mexico; Aleppo, Syria; Taipei, Taiwan; and Suzhou, China.
Hal will be leading the class, using On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century (120 pp.) by Timothy Snyder. Copies of the book may be ordered and picked up through the church office.
Course Schedule
| Date | Topics and Chapter Numbers | Room |
| Sunday, Oct. 16, 2022, 10:00 am | Introduction: Tyranny and the Founding Fathers | 203 |
| Sunday, Oct. 23, 2022, 10:00 am | Prologue: History and Tyranny. 1. Do Not Obey in Advance. 2. Defend Institutions. 3. Beware the One-Party State. 4. Take Responsibility for the Face of the World. | 203 |
| Sunday, Oct. 30, 2022, 10:00 am | 5. Remember Professional Ethics. 6. Be Wary of Paramilitaries. 7. Be Reflective If You Must Be Armed. 8. Stand Out. | 203 |
| Sunday, Nov. 6, 2022, 10:00 am | 10. Believe in Truth. 11. Investigate. 12. Make Eye Contact and Small Talk. 13. Practice Corporeal Politics. | 203 |
| Sunday, Nov. 13, 2022, 10:00 am | 14. Establish a Private Life. 15. Contribute to Good Causes. 16. Learn from Peers in Other Countries. 17. Listen for Dangerous Words. 18. Be Calm When the Unthinkable Arrives. | 203 |
| Sunday, Nov. 20, 2022, 10:00 am | 19. Be a Patriot. 20. Be As Courageous As You Can. Epilogue: History and Liberty. | 203 |
First Class: “Tyranny and the Founding Fathers” October 16, 2022
Lecture Notes
The Paleolithic
During the immensely long Paleolithic (3.3 million to 12 thousand years ago) humans lived as hunter-gatherers organized into mobile small bands that migrated according to the movements of the wild animals they tracked and killed. Because everyone made their own artifacts, their own tools and weapons, their own clothes, and shelters, started their own fires, and cooked their own food, and because hunters shared the meat they killed among all members of their band, they lived in absolute economic equality. Hunter-gatherer bands were self-governing and radically democratic. Leaders emerged only on a temporary, as-needed basis, and no one had power to compel anyone to do their bidding.
The Neolithic
Starting 12,000 years ago, humans became farmers, living in permanent settlements and tending domesticated plants and animals. Long stretches of time between harvests required the invention of storage facilities to insure a regular source of food throughout the year. Permanent habitations also allowed for the accumulation and proliferation of artifacts. Soon enough, agricultural communities became subject to violent attacks from other groups aimed at stealing their scarce resources, especially their stored food. Early in the Neolithic record we see the construction of fortifications around settlements, and because more and more humans were living in permanent communities and not migrating, their permanent separation from other groups led to differentiation into thousands of local cultures and languages.
Ancient and Modern Gangsters
Over the course of time, militarized bands learned to permanently attach themselves to the groups they conquered and extract all surplus food and artifacts on a permanent basis. This proved to be a common process in the formation of early states. Social and political structures became hierarchical with social classes based on wealth and power and the ruler at the apex. They were authoritarian and usually brutal in their applications of social control. In all cases, the ruler and ruling elite extracts all surplus production from those producing the food, using the wealth to pay for permanent craft specialists, standing armies, imposing government buildings, civic installations, opulent palaces and homes, and fabulous objects of personal adornment.
Population Growth
Because agriculture provides far more food than hunting and gathering, populations increased in numbers. Around 130,000 years ago, global human population is estimated to have been 100-300,000 individuals. By November of 2022 it will surpass 8 billion. Human overpopulation leads to scarcity and is a major cause of war, genocide, environmental degradation, and loss of wildlife habitat. When population growth exceeds the economic and ecological carrying capacity, a nation is plunged into famine, chaos and civil war. States, Empires and Nations With growing populations, ancient states made war on each other. Conquest is organized theft of another group’s resources and when land itself becomes scarce, genocide is not infrequent.
With successive conquests ancient states grew into empires. In modern times, interminable wars carved out the nation-states of today. Indeed, most kingdoms and empires have been formed and maintained with military violence, and dynastic succession or overthrow in ancient and modern times has often been achieved by assassination and rebellion.
A Better Way
During the late 18 th century, leading American intellectuals, inspired by readings of the formation of democracy in ancient Greece and among the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Confederacy in New York state, led a movement to break away from the British empire and establish a democracy in thirteen of the British colonies. In their writings they used the terms tyranny and absolute despotism to refer to the militarized, autocratic, hereditary and exploitative regime of King George III that they were rebelling against. Thomas Jefferson, assisted by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin,
Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston wrote the Declaration of Independence. With the aid of Britain’s arch-enemy France, their revolution was successful. When the Articles of Confederation showed that a stronger central government was needed, they wrote the Constitution of the United States of America, the world’s longest surviving written charter of government.
The U.S. Constitution
The Constitution established a system of separate executive, legislative and judicial bodies designed to prevent the concentration of power and provide for checks and balances that would prevent abuses of power typically exercised by monarchs and dictators. Its first ten amendments establish a Bill of Rights that add further guarantees of personal freedoms and rights, clear limitations on governmental power in judicial and other proceedings, and explicit declarations that all powers not specifically granted to the federal government are reserved to the states or the people. Democratically elected leaders hold power for a limited period of time, ensuring a regular, peaceful transfer of power every four years (“President”), six years (“Senator”) and two years (“Representative”). Persons holding public office must swear loyalty to the Constitution, not to any particular person. Members of the armed forces must swear loyalty to the Constitution, not to any of their military offficers. Every person is equal before the law. No one, not even the President, is above the law.
George Washington
Unique in history, the commanding general of the American Revolution, George Washington, refused urgings to name himself king and establish himself as the head of a new autocracy. After serving as America’s first President for two four-year terms, he refused to run a third time and become President-for-Life. Washington walked away from power twice, and established the norms of behavior of the new office of President that have persisted to this day and have made The United States of America the greatest democracy in world history. For these reasons, Washington is considered our greatest President.
The Will to Power
The Founding Fathers were well aware of the desire among some individuals to violently overthrow their government, seize power, become kings or dictators, and stay in power indefinitely through the use of violence and the threat of violence. Just as some people will commit evil acts for wealth, so also will some people commit evil acts for power. Motives include personal gratification of dominance over others, fame and glorification of the leader and his associates, and access to the wealth of the nation. On the last day of the Constitutional Convention, a lady asked Ben Franklin, “What have we got: a republic or a monarchy?” Ben Franklin replied, “A republic—if you can keep it.” Sometimes attributed to Jefferson, and well-known in the 19th century, is the quotation “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”
Modern Dictatorships
The 20th century saw the rise of antidemocratic totalitarian movements and the most devastating wars in human history. Communism, Fascism and Nazism led to the cruel imprisonment and deaths of millions of individuals deemed to be “Enemies of the People” and to the deaths in warfare of millions of combatants and civilians, on an industrial scale of torture and killing. In Korea and Syria we have examples of dictatorships made hereditary, with sons succeeding fathers and grandsons succeeding sons. In both cases they maintain their power by the use of terror against their own people.
The 21st century sees the rise of Ethnonationalist leaders, whose grasp on power is fueled by popular support for the dominance of one linguistic, ethnic, racial, group over all others.
Class Audio
Second Class: Timothy Snyder: On Tyranny
Prologue
The Founding Fathers contemplated the descent of ancient democracies and republics into oligarchy and empire, and were concerned that the democratic republic they envisioned would collapse. Aristotle warned that inequality brought instability. Plato believed that demagogues exploited free speech to install themselves as tyrants. Tyranny is when power is usurped by a single individual or group, or when rulers circumvent the law for their own benefit.
The European history of the 20th century shows us that:
* Societies can break;
* Democracies can fall;
* Ethics can collapse; and
* Ordinary men can find themselves standing over death pits with guns in their hands. It would serve us well today to understand why.
Ch. 1. Do Not Obey In Advance
Anticipatory Obedience is when enough people voluntarily extend their services to a new autocratic regime ahead of the regime issuing its commands, convincing the regime to go further than it had previously thought it could. In 1941, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union, the SS took the initiative to devise the methods of mass killing without orders to do so. Psychologist Stanley Milgram’s experiment at Yale University showed that some people are surprisingly willing to harm and kill others in the service of some new purpose.
Ch. 2. Beware the One-Party State
Support the multi-party system. Defend the rules of democratic elections. Vote in all elections at all levels: national, state and local. Consider running for office. American democracy must be defended not only from enemies abroad but also from Americans who would exploit its freedoms to bring about its end.
During the 1930s and 1940s, when Fascists, Nazis and Communists did well in democratic elections, what followed was some combination of:
* Repression;
* Spectacle; and
* “Salami Tactics” –slicing off layers of opposition one by one.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russians who voted in 1990 did not think this would be the last free and fair election in their country’s subsequent history. Putin’s oligarchy continues to function and promotes a foreign policy designed to destroy democracy elsewhere. Americans face the problem of oligarchy in the U.S. as globalization increases differences in wealth. The odd American idea that giving money to political campaigns is “free speech” means that the very wealthy have far more speech, and thus more voting power than ordinary citizens. At present the less popular of the two parties suppresses voting, claims fraud when it loses elections, and controls the majority of state houses. It proposes few policies that are popular with the society at large, and several that are unpopular. Because it fears democracy/majority rule, it attempts to weaken it.
Another early American proverb held that:
* “Where annual elections end, tyranny begins.”
Much needs to be done to fix the system of gerrymandering, so that each citizen has one equal vote, and so that each vote can be counted by a fellow citizen. We need paper ballots, because they cannot be tampered with remotely and can always be recounted.
Ch. 4. Take Responsibility for the Face of the World
The symbols of today enable the reality of tomorrow. Notice the swastikas. Do not get used to them. Remove them yourself if you are able. Set an example for others to do so. In the USSR under Stalin, prosperous farmers who owned their own land were portrayed on propaganda posters as pigs—a dehumanization that in rural settings clearly suggests slaughter. Collectivization of lands brought starvation to millions of peasants in Soviet Ukraine, Soviet Kazakhstan, and Soviet Russia. In Nazi Germany, a shop marked with the Star of David and the word “Jew” had no future. It became an object of covetous plans. Greed for Jewish property and wealth fed the rounding up of Jews into concentration camps.
Notice the Confederate flags.
DEFINITIONS
Tyranny: Cruel and oppressive government or rule. From the Greek tyrannia, rule of a tyrant, absolute power.
Autocracy: A system of government led by one person with absolute power.
Dictatorship: Government by a dictator. Absolute power concentrated in the hands of a single leader or small clique.
Oligarchy: A small group of people with control over a nation. May be defined by nobility, fame, wealth, education, or corporate, religious, political or military control. Ex.: 19th Century English aristocracy; 20th and 21st Century military juntas.
One Party State: A sovereign state in which only one political party has the right to form the government, usually based on the existing constitution. All other parties are either outlawed or allowed to have only a limited and controlled participation in elections.
Right Wing: The section of a political party or system that advocates for free enterprise and private ownership. It typically favors social traditional ideas. The conservative group or section.
Left Wing: The section of a political party or system that advocates for greater social and economic equality. It typically favors socially liberally ideas. The liberal or progressive group or section.
Democracy: A system of government by the whole population, or by all eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives. Control of a state by mlajority of its members. The practice or principle of social equality.
Republic: A state in which supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives, with an elected or nominated president. Difference between a Democracy and a Republic. The major difference between a democracy and a republic is that in the case of a democracy it is the majority of the population that makes decisions and directs, whereas in a republic the majority is limited to what the constitution indicates. The U.S. is a Democracy. “We the People” hold the ultimate political power.
Capitalism: An economic system based on private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private property, property rights recognition, voluntary exchange, and wage labor. In a market economy, decision-making and investments are determined by owners of wealth, property, or ability to maneuver capital or production ability in capital and financial markets. Prices and the distribution of goods and services are mainly determined by competition in goods and services markets. Market economies have existed under many forms of government and in many different times, places and cultures. Modern capitalist societies developed in Western Europe in a process that led to the Industrial Revolution. Capitalist systems with varying degrees of direct government intervention have since become dominant in the Western world and continue to spread. Economic growth is a characteristic tendency of capitalist economies.
Socialism: An economic system based on social ownership of the means of production. Social ownership can state/public, community, collective, cooperative, or employee. Different types of socialism vary based on the role of markets and planning in resource allocation, on the structure of management in organizations, and from below or from above approaches, with some socialists favoring a party, state, or technocratic-driven approach. Socialist systems are divided into non-market and market forms. Socialist nations are divided into authoritarian socialist states and democratic socialist states, with the first representing the Eastern Bloc nations and the latter representing the Western Bloc nations, which have been governed by socialist parties in Britain, France, Sweden, and other nations. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and end of the Cold War, many nations have moved away from socialism as a neoliberal consensus replaced the social democratic consensus in the advanced capitalist world.
Neoliberal: Favoring policies that promote free-market capitalism, government deregulation, and reduction in government spending.
Communism: An authoritarian, anti-democratic form of socialism, which holds that there are two major classes, the working class (proletariat) and the capitalist class (bourgeoisie). The small capitalist class privately owns the means of production and exploits the large working class, which is forced to sell its labor in order to survive. Communism calls for a working class revolution against the capitalist class, establishing a dictatorship of the proletariat and government ownership of all property and the means of production. Communist governments are characterized by one-party rule and suppression of political opposition and dissent. Communist revolutions in Russia, China and other states led to the deaths of millions of citizens.
Class Audio: October 23, 2022
Third Class: Tyranny and the Founding Fathers
TIMOTHY SNYDER: ON TYRANNY
NOTES on Chs. 5-9
Ch. 5. Remember Professional Ethics
Professional commitment to just practice is very important.
When Hans Frank, Hitler’s personal lawyer, became governor-general of occupied Poland, he boasted that “there were not enough trees to make the paper for all the posters announcing the executions.” Millions of Polish citizens were murdered. Lawyers were vastly overrepresented among the commanders of the Einsatzgruppen who carried out the mass murders of Jews, Gypsies, Polish elites, communists, the handicapped, and the mentally ill. German and other physicians took part in ghastly medical experiments.
German businessmen from I.G. Farben and other companies exploited the labor of concentration camp inmates, ghettos and prisoners of war. Professional ethics must guide us precisely when we are told that
the situation is “exceptional.” Then there is no such thing as “just following orders.”
Ch. 6. Be Wary of Paramilitaries
Most governments, most of the time, seek to monopolize violence. That is, only goverrnment institutions such as the army and the police are allowed to exercise it. It is impossible to carry out democratic lections, try cases at court, design and enforce laws, or indeed manage any of the other quiet business of government when agencies beyond the state also have access to violence. For just this reason, people and parties who wish to undermine democracy and the rule of law create and fund violent organizations that can involve themselves in politics:
- The Iron Guard in interwar Romania;
- The Arrow Cross in interwar Hungary.
Nazi storm troopers began as a security detail clearing the halls of
of Hitler’s opponents during his rallies. As the SA and SS, they
created a climate of fear that helped the Nazi Party in the
parliamentary elections of 1932 and 1933.
Ch. 7 Be Reflective If You Must Be Armed
Evils of the past involved policemen and soldiers finding
themselves, one day, doing irregular things.
Be ready to say no.
Authoritarian regimes usually include a special riot police force
whose task is to disperse citizens who seek to protest, and a
secret state police force whose assignments include the murder of
dissenters and others designated as enemies.
Regular police forces and sometimes regular soldiers assisted in: - 1937-1938 USSR: The Great Terror. 682,691 citizens murdered.
- 1941-1945 Europe: The Holocaust. 6 million Jews murdered.
- Stand Out
It is easy to follow along. It can feel strange to do or say something different.
The moment you set an example, the spell of the status quo is broken and others will follow.
Well before the Second World War, numerous European states had abandoned democracy for some form of right-wing authoritarianism:
- 1922 Italy: The first Fascist state.
- 1938 France, Italy and Great Britain (led by Neville Chamberlain) cooperated with Germany in partition of Czechoslovakia.
- 1939 USSR and Nazi Germany invaded Poland, activating treaties that brought Great Britain and France into war against Germany.
Germany then quickly conquered Norway, Netherlands, Belgium and France. USSR invaded Finland and conquered Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
At its darkest hour Winston Churchill rallied the British people to continue fighting against Nazi Germany.
- 1941 Germany invaded the USSR. Suddenly, Russia
became an ally of Great Britain and France. - 1941 Japan attacks the United States, and Germany declares war on the U.S. Suddenly, the U.S. became an ally of Great Britain, France and Russia.
- Be Kind to Our Language
Avoid pronouncing the phrases everyone else uses.
- “the people” Nazis meant some people, not others.
- “my people” Trump’s term for his followers.
Make an effort to separate yourself from the internet. Read books.
Examples from fiction: - 1949 1984 by George Orwell. Books are banned. Certain
words are eliminated from the official dictionary. - 1953 Fahrenheit 415 by Ray Bradbury. Firemen find and
burn books. - 1997-2007 Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. A saga of
tyranny and resistance set in a magical English boarding school. - Christians might return to the Bible for wisdom and guidance:
- “Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that
shall humble himself shall be exalted.” - “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”
THE ELEVEN NATIONS OF NORTH AMERICA
Chs. 1-9 of American Nations by Colin Woodard (2011)
Chart by Hendrick Serrie
YANKEEDOM
Introduction & Ch. 4. Old World origin of settlers
England
Location of settlements in New World
Founded on the shores of Massachusetts Bay in 1620
Social and economic background
Settled by stable, educated families
Middle-class ethos
Religious denomination
Pilgrims, Puritans; radical Calvinists wanting a religious utopia
Religious zeal waned over time, becoming “Secular Puritanism”
Fundamental values
Great emphasis on education
Considerable respect for intellectual achievement
Local political control
Pursuit of the “Greater Good” of the community, even if it required individual self-denial
Great faith in the potential of government to improve people’s lives
Government seen as a bulwark against the schemes of grasping aristocrats, corporations, or outside powers
Seeking to build a more perfect society here on Earth through social engineering
Extensive citizen involvement in the political process
Aggressive assimilation of foreigners
Expansion from original settlement
From its New England core, spread with its settlers across upper New York State; the northern strips of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa; parts of the eastern Dakotas; and on up into Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the Canadian Maritimes
Other cultural characteristics
Locked in nearly perpetual combat with the Deep South for control of the federal government since 1776.
NEW NETHERLAND
Introduction & Ch. 5. Old World origin of settlers
The Netherlands
Location of settlements in New World
Dutch colonies in Manhattan, Hudson River valley, New Jersey and Delaware, founded in 1624
Conquered by the English in 1664
Social and economic background
Self-made men of humble origin
New Amsterdam started as a fur trading post operated by the Dutch West India Company
Became a trading entrepot for Yankeedom and Tidewater
Ethnically and linguistically diverse; the Dutch not a majority
In 1643, 18 languages spoken among a total population of 500
Religious denomination
Religiously diverse, including Dutch Reformed, Puritans, Anglicans, Quakers, Lutherans, Catholic, Jews and at least one Muslim
Fundamental values
Overwhelming emphasis on private enterprise
Global, commercial trading society
Materialistic, mercantile, free-trading, speculative
Profound tolerance of diversity
Multi-ethnic, multi-religious
Unflinching commitment to freedom of scientific, political and intellectual inquiry that led to the Bill of Rights
Freedom of the press
Contraction of original settlements
Conquered by English in 1664
Territory shrunk to five boroughs of New York City, lower Hudson Valley, northern New Jersey, western Long Island and southwestern Connecticut
Other cultural characteristics
Introduced full-on commercial sale of African slaves in 1626
Multiracial and multigenerational legacy of slavery by 1664
With the Left Coast, co-founder of the gay rights movement, the peace movement, and the cultural
revolution of the 1960s
- THE MIDLANDS
Introduction & Ch. 8. Old World origin of settlers
Founded in 1680 by Quakers from England
The second wave of settlers was from the Palatinate in Germany; many were fleeing from tyrannies, warfare, starvation
After the late 1600s, non-Anglo-Saxon people of German descent comprised the largest group
Location of settlements in New World
William Penn was given the 45,000 square miles between Duke of York’s New York and Lord Baltimore’s Maryland
The shores of Delaware Bay, southeastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, northern delaware and northern Maryland
Social and economic background
Quakers were families of modest means; skilled artisans and farmers
Germans were large extended families and some entire transplanted villages; skilled artisans and peasants
The small-scale farming skills of the Germans became legendary
The Germans invented the Conestoga wagon
Religious denomination
The Quakers were the most controversial religious cult of the era; considered radical and dangerous
Spurned organized religion; rather than study and obey scripture to achieve salvation, found God through personal mystical experience
Every person had an “Inner Light” which held the Holy Spirit within him or her
Overcome with rapture, they would fall into violent fits or “quakes” that frightened nonQuakers
All earthly authority was ultimately without legitimacy; some staged in-your-face confrontations with religious and political authorities; some embraced martyrdom
The German colonists were Lutherans, German Calvinists, and sects like the Amish, Mennonites, and Brethren of Christ
Fundamental values
Thrift and sobriety; goal to establish prosperous family farms
Utopian colonies
In the beginning, no armed force
Existing in peace with local Native Americans, paying them for their land and respecting their interests
Held women to be spiritually equal to men
Questioned the legitimacy of slavery
Welcomed people of many nations and creeds; pluralistic, ethnic mosaic
Ethnic and ideological purity have never been a priority
Rejected any show of respect to social superiors
Extended the vote to nearly everyone
Society should be organized to benefit ordinary people
Government seen as an unwelcome intrusion; skeptical of top-down government intrusion
Political opinion moderate, even apathetic
Developed intense aversion to violence and war
Expansion from original settlements
Spread westward through central Ohio, Indiana and Illinois; northern Missouri; most of Iowa; and the less-arid eastern halves of South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas
Currently shares key “border cities” of Chicago with Yankeedom and St. Louis with Greater Appalachia
Other cultural characteristics
The most prototypically “American” of all the nations
Spawned the culture of Middle America and the Heartland
Home to the English dialect long considered “standard American” that is used in the speech of mass media
Bellweather for national political attitudes
Key “swing vote” in every national debate, from the abolition of slavery to the 2008 presidential election
TIDEWATER
Introduction & Ch. 3. Old World origin of settlers
England
Location of settlements in New world
Jamestown settled in 1607
Lowlands of Virginia, Maryland, southern Delaware and northeastern North Carolina
Social and economic background
The younger, non-inheriting sons of southern English gentry, self-identified as “Cavaliers,” royalist supporters of King Charles II
Large numbers of beggars and vagrants rounded up on the streets of London and other English cities ; at first sent by force, later lured as three-year indentured servants in return for fifty acres of free land
Developed lucrative tobacco plantations
Largely succeeded in reproducing the semifeudal manorial society of the English countryside, where economic, political and social affairs were run by and for landed aristocrats
Deviated from English primogeniture; all sons inherited
Leading families intermarried in both America and England
Created a country gentleman’s paradise, with indentured servants and, later, slaves taking the part of the English peasants
Created a thoroughly rural society without towns or even villages
No public schools; children of the wealthy had private tutors
Religious denomination
Church of England (Anglican) in Virginia
In Maryland, original Catholic settlers subsequently outnumbered by Protestants
Fundamental values
From the outset, a society of a few haves and a great many have-nots
Gentry embraced a model of a republic based on ancient Greece and Rome
Emulated the learned, slave-holding elite of ancient Athens
Enlightenment values based on Latin libertas (liberty), not German freiheit (freedom), of Yankeedom and the
Midlands
Descendants of aristocratic Norman conquerors vs. “common” Anglo-Saxons
Hierarchy maintained by the threat of violence
Has always been a fundamentally conservative region
High value placed on respect for authority and tradition
Very little value placed on equality
Very little value placed on public participation in politics
Non-expansion from original settlements
Blocked by rivals from expanding over the Appalachian Mountains
Other cultural characteristics
Most powerful nation during the colonial period and the Early Republic
Elites played a central role in the foundation of the United States
Responsible for many aristocratic inflections in the Constitution, including the Electoral College and Senate, whose members were to be appointed by legislators, not chosen by the electorate
Region’s power waned in the 1830s and 1840s, its elite generally following the lead of the planters of the ascendant Deep South in matters of national political importance
Today it is a nation in decline, rapidly losing its influence, cultural cohesion and territory to its Midland neighbors
GREATER APPALACHIA
Introduction & Ch. 9. Old World origin of settlers
Founded 1717-1776 in five waves of settlers from the war-torn borderlands of the Scottish lowlands, northern England, and Northern Ireland; “American Borderlanders”
Location of settlements in New World
Rushed straight to the isolation of the 18 th century American frontier
From their initial stronghold in south central Pennsylvania, spread south down the Appalachian mountains on an ancient 800-mile-long Indian trail that came to be known as the Great Wagon Road
Occupied the barely explored Southern upcountry of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and what later became known as West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee
Social and economic background
Clannish Scots-Irish, Scots and north English
Wave upon wave of rough, bellicose settlers from areas in the British Isles, formed by near-constant wars and upheavals and extreme economic exploitation
Arrived in extended family groups
Intermarriage between first cousins was commonplace
Recognized as “family” four generations out in either direction, effectively creating enormous clans
Maintained close communities of kin and neighbors scattered among the hills
Developed a woodland subsistence economy based on hunting, fishing and slash-and-burn agriculture, thus requiring moving every few years as the thin soil became depleted
Stored wealth in herds of cattle, pigs and sheep that could easily be herded and moved to new locations
Distilled corn into whiskey, which remained the de facto currency for the next two centuries
Long periods of leisure condemned as sloth by Protestants of other regions
A significant proportion “went Native,” abandoning farming for hunting and fishing, adopting Native American customs and marrying Native American women
Religious denomination
Presbyterian Calvinism
Subsequently gave the country Evangelical fundamentalism
Fundamental values
Deep commitment to individual liberty and personal sovereignty
Started as a civilization without a government; founded a society that was literally beyond the reach of the law, and modeled on the anarchical world they had left behind
Intensely suspicious of aristocrats and social reformers alike; despised Yankee teachers, Tidewater lords, and Deep Southern aristocrats
Clashed with Indians, Mexicans and Yankees as they migrated
A warrior ethic
Provided a large portion of the nation’s military, from officers like Andrew Jackson, Davy Crockett, and Douglas MacArthur to the enlisted men fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq
During the American Revolution, created nation-states of their own: the Fair Play territory of 1779-1784, and Transylvania, which sent a delegate to the Continental Congress in hopes of being recognized as a fourteenth member
In the Civil War, much of the region fought for the Union, with secession movements in western Virginia (creating the state of West Virginia, eastern Tennessee, and northern Alabama
During Reconstruction the region resisted the Yankee effort to liberate African slaves, driving it into a lasting alliance with its former enemies, the overlords of the Tidewater and Deep Southern lowlands of Dixie
Expansion from original settlements
Spread across the highland South and on into the southern tiers of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois; the Arkansas and Missouri Ozarks; the eastern two-thirds of Oklahoma; and the Hill Country of Texas
Other cultural characteristics
Gave the continent bluegrass and country music, stock car racing
Lampooned by writers, journalists, filmmakers, and
television producers as “rednecks,” “hillbillies,”
“crackers,” and “white trash”
Have long had a poor awareness of their cultural origins;
“the people with no name”
THE DEEP SOUTH
Introduction & Ch. 7. New World origin of settlers
Founded in the 1600s by entrepreneurs from Barbados, West Indies, an English colony
Location of settlements in New World
Beginning in Charleston
Social and economic background
Wealthy slave lords replicating West Indies-style slave society
Created a version of Classical Republics (i.e. ancient Greek and Roman) modelled on the slave states of the ancient world
Democracy a privilege of the few, enslavement the natural lot of the many
Religious denomination
While not particularly religious, the planters embraced the Anglican
Church as another symbol of belonging to the establishment
Fundamental values
So cruel and despotic that it shocked even its contemporaries in England
Apartheid and authoritarianism
For most of American history, a bastion of white supremacy and aristocratic values
The least democratic of the Eleven Nations; a one-party entity where race remains the primary determinant of one’s political affiliations
Expansion from original settlements
Spread across the Southern lowlands, eventually encompassing most of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, and Louisiana; western Tennessee; and the southeastern parts of North Carolina, Arkansas, and Texas
Other cultural characteristics
In the 1860s it dragged the federation (i.e., the United States) into a horrific war in an attempt to form its own nation-state; backed by reluctant allies in Tidewater and some corners of Appalachia
After losing the Civil War, it successfully resisted a Yankee-led occupation
Became the center of the states’ rights movement, racial segregation, and labor and environmental deregulation
At the same time, the wellspring of African American culture
Four decades after it was forced to allow blacks to vote, it remains politically polarized on racial grounds
Having forged an uneasy “Dixie” coalition with Appalachia and Tidewater in the 1970s, the Deep South is locked in an epic battle with Yankeedom and its Left Coast and New Netherlands allies for the future of the federation (i.e., the United States)
NEW FRANCE
Introduction & Ch. 2. Old World origin of settlers
Founded in the early 1600s by settlers from Normandy, northern France
Location of settlements in New World
First settlement on St. Croix River in eastern Maine; next year moved to Nova Scotia
At its greatest extent, Canada, Quebec, Louisiana Purchase Social and economic background
The peasantry of the ancien regime in France with its folkways
Many settlers were unmarried men who intermarried with Native American women
Blended with the traditions and values of the aboriginal peoples encountered in northeastern North America
Religious denomination
French Catholic
Fundamental values
Down-to-earth, egalitarian, and consensus-driven
Since the mid-twentieth century, have imparted many of their attitudes to their federation (Canada), where multiculturalism and negotiated consensus are treasured
As demonstrated by polls, far and away the most liberal people on the continent
Expansion and contraction from original settlements
Conquered by the British in the French and Indian War; long oppressed by British overlords
Today includes the lower third of Quebec, northern and northeastern New Brunswick, the Acadian (or “Cajun”) enclaves of southern Louisiana
New Orleans is a border city, mixing elements of New France and the Deep South
Other cultural characteristics
Indirectly responsible for the reemergence of First Nation (the aboriginal population)
The most overtly nationalistic of the nations; the nation most likely to secure an independent state
The province of Quebec is a nation-state-in-waiting, but would first have to negotiate a partition with the inhabitants of First Nation
- EL NORTE
Introduction & Chs. 1, 19. Old World origin of settlers
Spain; colonization by the Spanish Empire
The oldest of the Euro-American nations, dating back to the 1500s
Location of settlements in New World
In the early 1500s, short-lived colonies in Virginia and Georgia
In 1565, St. Augustine, Florida was established
In the 1500s, missions were established in New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado by order of imperial or church authorities
In the late 1500s, Monterrey, Saltillo, and other northern outposts in California were established.
Social and economic background
Bringing very few Iberian women, the original Spanish settlers took native women as wives, creating a caste system with large numbers of mestizos
The Spanish brought horses, cattle, sheep and goats to the New world
The cattle-raising technology of southern Spain was introduced to the similar ecology of the Southwest: mounted vaqueros (cowboys), large ranching estates, and cattle herding over vast, unfenced ranges
Retained the technology of 17 th century Spain straight into the 20 th century, working fields with wooden plows, hauling wool in crude medieval carts
Religious denomination
Spanish Catholic
Retained the traditions and religious pageantry of 17 th century Spain, literally crucifying with nails one of their own for Lent (now done with rope)
Fundamental values
No self-government, no elections, no possibility for local people to play any significant role in politics
Military governor
Self-perpetuating oligarchy of wealthiest members
Ordinary people expected to give loyalty to their patron, like the lord-serf relations of the Middle Ages
Expansion from original settlements
Today, this resurgent nation spreads from the United States-Mexico border for a hundred miles or more in both directions, encompassing south and west Texas, southern California and the Imperial Valley, southern Arizona, most of New Mexico, parts of Colorado, as well as the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, Chihuahua, Sonora, and Baja California.
Other cultural characteristics
It has long been a hybrid between Anglo and Spanish America, with an economy oriented toward the United States rather than Mexico City
Today, hispanic language, culture, and societal norms are overwhelmingly dominant
In Mexico, the people of the northern border states are seen as overly Americanized; nortenos have a well-earned reputation for being more independent, self-sufficient, adaptable, and work-centered than Mexicans from the mjore densely populated, hierarchical society of the Mexican core
Long a hotbed of democratic reform and revolutionary sentiment, the northern Mexican states have more in common with the Hispanic borderlands of the southwestern United States—historically, culturally,
economically, and gastronomically—than they do with the rest of Mexico
Split by an increasingly militarized border, many nortenos would prefer to secede from both Mexico and the United States, and federate to form a third nation-state of their own, “La Republica del Norte”
Dest o be n increasingly influential force within the United States; by 2050, 29% of the population will be self- identified Hispanics, much of the increase taking place in El Norte\
THE LEFT COAST
Introduction & Ch. 20. New World origin of settlers
Originally colonized by mrchants, missionaries, and woodsmen from New England, who arrived by sea and controlled the towns
And by farmers, prospectors, and fur traders from Greater Appalachia, who arrived by wagon and dominated the countryside
Location in New World
A wet region of staggering natural beauty, extending in a strip from Monterrey, California to Juneau, Alaska
Social and economic background
Long-distance fur traders, connected by ship to New England
Gold Rush drew people from all over the world Religious denomination
Yankee Congregational, Appalachian Presbyterian Fundamental values
Retains a strong strain of New England intellectualism and idealism, even as it embraces a culture of individual fulfillment
Combines the Yankee faith in good government and social reform with a commitment to individual self-exploration and discovery
Gold Rush get-rich-and-get-out mentality, offensive to Yankee Puritan ethos
Expansion from original settlements
Includes four decidedly progressive metropolises: San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver
Other cultural characteristics
The birthplace of the modern environmental movement
The birthplace of the global information revolution; home to Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Apple, Twitter, and Silicon Valley
With New Netherland, co-founder of the gay rights movement, the peace movement, and the cultural revolution of the 1960s
Modern secessionist movement seeks to create the sovereign state of “Cascadia, a bioregional cooperative commonwealth”
The closest ally of Yankeedom, it battles constantly against the libertarian, corporate agenda of its neighbor, the Far West
THE FAR WEST
Introduction & Ch. 22. New World origin of settlers
Yankee Mormons from Vermont, upstate New York Location of settlements in New World
Encompasses all of the North American interior west of the 100 th meridian, from the northern boundary of El Norte to the southern frontier (in Canada) of First Nation
Includes northern Arizona; the interiors of California, Washington, and Oregon; much of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Alaska; portions of Yukon and the Northwest Territories; the arid western halves of the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Kansas; and all or nearly all of Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Utah, and Nevada
At first, settlers from the east and Midwest drove their wagons straight on through on their way to the West coast.
Social and economic background
Yankee-led utopian movement
Mormons migrated as communities, extended families
Mormons had a communal mind-set and intense group cohesion necessary for building and maintaining irrigation projects
Established enclaves of independent producers
Gold-hungry Forty-Niners were individualistic adventurers, single men in the Appalachian mode
Religious denomination
Mormon, miscellaneous
Fundamental values
Mormon emphasis on morality, good works
Yankee desire to assimilate others
The only one of the eleven nations where environmental factors have trumped ethnic ones
High, dry, and remote, the interior west presented conditions so severe that they effectively destroyed those who tried to apply the farming and lifestyle techniques used in Greater Appalachia, the Midlands, or other nations
Expansion from original settlements
With minor exceptions, this vast region could not be effectively colonized without the deployment of vast industrial resources: railroads, heavy mining equipment, ore smelters, dams, and irrigation systems
As a result, the colonization of much of the region was facilita ted and directed by large corporations headquartered in distant cities (New York, Boston, Chicago, or San Francisco), or by the federal government, which controlled much of the land
Settlers were dependent on the companies as employees, and on the railroads for transportation of goods, products, and people to and from far-off markets
Other cultural characteristics
Treated as an internal colony, exploited, and despoiled for the benefit of the seaboard nations
Despite significant industrialization during World War II and the Cold War, the region remains in a state of semi-dependency
Its political class tends to revile the federal government for interfering in its affairs—a stance that often aligns it with the Deep South—while demanding it continue to receive federal largesse
Rarely challenges its corporate masters, who retain near- Gilded Age levels of influence over its affairs
FIRST NATION
Introduction & Epilogue. Indigenous origin of settlers
Descendants of the Paleolithic hunter-gatherers who crossed the Bering Straight when it was a land bridge from Siberia into Alaska, around 16-13,000 years ago.
Location in New World
These Paleolithic peoples migrated into all areas of North and South America, reaching Tierra del Fuego around 6,000 years ago.
Social and economic background
Before the arrival of the Europeans, the Americas were home to around one-fifth of the world’s population, with cultures ranging from hunting-gathering bands to preindustrial cities of 200,000 inhabitants with monumental pyramids, hydraulic engineering, and sophisticated technologies of stoneworking and weaving.
The Inuit were organized at the family level only, due to the harshness of their environment requiring extremely sparse dispersal of their population; no tribal organization;
temporary summer gatherings The Inuit were the only cultural group in the world to
subsist, through necessity, on an exclusive meat diet before contact with Europeans
South of the Arctic, many northern tribes practiced subsistence agriculture combined with hunting and
gathering wild food sources
Many indigenous cultures of North America had a standard of living far higher than that of their European counterparts: better sanitation, freer of diseases, better fed and better housed
Religious denominations
Numerous and diverse beliefs, ranging from animistic to polytheistic to monotheistic
Shamanic practices were universal
Although it was very difficult to unite different tribes in a common purpose, there were notable powerful confederacies
Fundamental values
Hunter-gatherer societies were highly individualistic
Warrior ethos; competition for territory led to tribal warfare in pre-European times as well as during the centuries of European conquest, appropriation of their lands, genocide, and displacement to ill-managed reservations
Environmental ethos; deep knowledge of the flora, fauna, natural terrain and weather of the local environment
Reclaiming sovereignty
Across the northern third of North America, aboriginal peoples have been reclaiming sovereignty over traditional territories
From northern Alaska to Greenland and nearly everywhere in between
Sprawling region of dense boreal forests, Arctic tundra and treeless, glaciated islands, many native peoples never signed away the rights to their land, which they still occupy, and to a surprising degree, continue to live off using the techniques of their forefathers
Key legal decisions, won in Canada and Greenland, award considerable leverage over what happens in their territories, forcing energy, mining and timber corporations to come in supplicant mode for resource extraction concessions
In 1999, Canadian Inuit won their own territory, Nunavut, which is larger than Alaska
The Inuit of Greenland control their own affairs as an autonomous, self-governing unit of the Kingdom of Denmark and are moving aggressively toward full independence
Together with the Innu, Kaska, Dene, Cree, and dozens of other tribes, the northern aboriginal people have cultural dominance and are rapidly taking control of vast portions of what were previously the northern fringes of the Far West, including much of the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Labrador; the entirety of Nunavut and Greenland; the northern tier of Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta; much of northwestern British Columbia; and the northern two-thirds of Quebec This eleventh nation—First Nation—is far and away the largest of all by geography (much bigger than the
continental United States) but the smallest by population (less than 300,000, all told)
Other cultural characteristics
The explorations and settlements of the Vikings in the 10 th and 11 th centuries were short-lived (except for the colony in Greenland which lasted 500 years before dying out) and had no impact on the indigenous peoples of the Canadian Atlantic coast
Following the Spanish conquests of the civilizations of Mexico and Peru, by 1640 the population of the Americas had crashed by 60 to 80 percent. “God saw fit to send the Indians smallpox,” wrote one European observer In the United States and Latin America, many Native American peoples were the victims of deliberate EuroAmerican genocide
ELIE WIESEL
Nobel Peace Prize Winner
Acceptance Speech, Oslo Norway, 1986:
“Evil triumphs when good people do nothing.” “I remember: It happened yesterday or eternities ago. A young Jewish boy discovered the kingdom of night. I remember his bewilderment. I remember
his anguish. It all happened so fast. The ghetto. The deportation. The sealed cattle car. The fiery altar upon which the history of our people and the future of mankind were meant to be sacrificed. I remember: He asked his father: “Can this be true? This .is the 20th century, not the Middle Ages. Who would allow such crimes to be committed? How could the world remain silent?”
And now the boy is turning to ask me: “Tell me, ” he asks, “what have you done with my future? What have you done with your life?” And I tell him that I have tried. That I have tried to keep the memory alive, that I have tried to fight those who would forget. Because if we forget, we are guilty, we are accomplices.
And then I explained to him how naive we were, that the world did know and remain silent. And that is why I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation.
We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.
Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become
irrelevant. Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must–at that moment–become the center of the universe.
There is so much injustice and suffering crying out for our attention: victims of hunger, or racism and political persecution, writers and poets, prisoners in so many lands governed by the left and by the right. Human rights are violated on every continent. More people are oppressed than free. Yes, I have faith. Faith in God and even in His creation. Without it no action would be possible. And action is the only remedy to indifference: the most insidious danger of all. There is much to be done, there is much that can be done. One person–a Raoul Wallenberg, an Albert Schweitzer, one person of integrity–can make a difference, a difference of life and death.
As long as one dissident is in prison, our freedom will not be true. As long as one child is hungry, our lives will be filled with anguish and shame . What all these victims need above all is to know that they are not alone; that we are not forgetting them, that when their voices are stifled we shall lend them ours, that while their freedom depends on ours, the quality of our freedom depends on theirs.
We know that every moment is a moment of grace, every hour an offering; not to share them would mean to betray them. Our lives no longer belong to us alone; they belong to all those who need us desperately.”
The following was written by Paul Mojzes, editor of Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe, in Volume 7, Issue 1, Article 12, 1987:
Elie Wiesel is undoubtedly a voice of our collective conscience. Not only is he a haunting spokesman for the past, speaking to us in lieu of the millions tortured and murdered in the Holocaust, but he is also an instigator of individual and collective .concern over present and future deeds of evil. His acceptance speech of the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize was vintage Wiesel: concise, disturbing, beckoning a return to humane behavior. These are noble words. We know them to be true in a holy way. As with all
prophetic words, we know them to judge our behavior, our failures to live up to our tasks. Every individual and every organization tends to fall short in its task to speak up for the voiceless oppressed. It is incumbent on us to review at appropriate times and in appropriate forums where have we overlooked
instances of imploring hands and eyes, and even uttered pleas for help, which we neglected to register, convey, and helpfully respond. We must not become walking graveyards of victims’ pleas. To repeat Wiesel’s statement quoted above, “If we forget, we are guilty, we are accomplices.”
For several years, Elie Wiesel was a Visiting Faculty Member at Eckerd College during the January Winter
Session, where he team-taught a course with Carolyn Johnston, who was the Elie Wiesel Professor of Humane Studies.
JOHN LEWIS
Civil Rights Leader and Congressman.
African Americans endured 300 years of slavery and 100 years of Jim Crow under the Southern Oligarchy. John Lewis faced down the hatred, cruelty, and violence of White Supremacist Racism with courage and nonviolence and Christian faith, time after time after time. Toward the end of his long and productive life, he offered these words of counsel to all those who are continuing the struggle to make America good, with equality under the law and good will for every citizen of every gender, every race, and every faith.
John Lewis said:
“Do not get lost in a sea of despair.”
“Do not become bitter or hostile.”
“Be hopeful. Be optimistic.”
“Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good
trouble, necessary trouble.”
“We will find a way,
To make a way,
Out of no way.”
Third Class Audio: October 30, 2022
Fourth Class: November 6, 2022
TIMOTHY SNYDER: ON TYRANNY NOTES on Chs. 10-13
Ch. 10. Believe in Truth
To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis on which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. You submit to tyranny when you renounce the difference between what you want to hear and what is actually the case.
Truth dies in four modes:
* Open hostility to verifiable reality, which takes the form of presenting inventions and lies as if they were facts.
* Shamanistic incantation. The fascist style depends on. endless repetition, designed to make the
fictional plausible and the criminal desirable.
* Magical thinking, or the open embrace of contradictions. Ex.: “The vote is rigged and you should vote for me anyways.”
Ex.: “Black people are taking the vote away from white people.”
Accepting untruth of this radical kind requires a blatant abandonment of reason. George Orwell called this “doublethink.”
* Misplaced faith. Ex: “I alone can solve it.” Once truth becomes oracular rather than factual, evidence
is irrelevant.
11. Investigate
Figure things out for yourself. Subsidize investigative journalism by subscribing to print media.
Realize that some of what is on the internet is there to harm you. Take responsibility for what you communicate with others. It is your ability to discern facts that make you an individual, and our collective trust in common knowledge that makes us a society.
The previous president used the word lies to mean facts not to his liking, and called journalists enemies of the people (as Hitler and the Nazis had done). Where the Nazis had said Lugenpresse, he said Fake News.
Vaclav Havel wrote,
“If the main pillar of the system is living a lie, then it is not surprising that the fundamental threat to it is living in truth.” Since in the age of the Internet we are all publishers, each of us bears some responsibility for the public’s sense of truth.
12. Make Eye Contact and Small Talk
This is not just polite. It is part of being a citizen and a responsible member of society. For people in Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union Great Terror of 1937-38, and the Communist purges in Eastern Europe, a smile, a handshake, a word of greeting took on great significance. When friends looked away, fear grew. In the most dangerous of times, those who escape and survive generally know people whom they can trust. Having old friends is the politics of last resort. And making new ones is the first step toward change.
13. Practice Corporeal Politics
For resistance to succeed, two boundaries must be crossed:
* Ideas about change must engage people of various backgrounds who do not agree about everything.
* People must find themselves in places that are not their homes, and among groups who were previously not their friends.
Protest can be organized through social media, but nothing is real that does not end on the streets. If tyrants feel no consequences for their actions in the three-dimensional world, nothing will change.
The one example of successful resistance to Communism was the Solidarity labor movement in Poland in 1980-81: a coalition of workers and professionals, elements of the Roman Catholic Church, and secular groups. These were people from both the Right and the Left, believers and atheists, who created trust among workers—people whom they would not otherwise have met.
HERBERT HOOVER: 33rd President of the United States, 1929-1933
Quoted on History Channel, The Presidents by Timothy Walch, President Emeritus, Hoover Institution
Herbert Hoover once said that: “The only trouble with capitalism is capitalists. They’re too damn greedy.”
WINSTON CHURCHILL 1935.
His observation about Britain’s failed policies toward Germany, four years before the start of The Second World War.
“When the situation was manageable, it was neglected. And now that it is thoroughly out of hand, we apply too late the remedies which then might have effected a cure. “There is nothing new in the story. It is as old as the Sibylline books.
“It falls into that long, dismal catalogue of the fruitlessness of experience, and the confirmed unteachability of mankind. “Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong—these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.”
PAUL KRUGMAN
Nobel Prize Winning Economist
New York Times, 1 June 2020
America as we know it is on the brink.
The core story of U.S. politics over the past four decades is that wealthy elites weaponized white racism to gain political power, which they used to pursue policies that enriched the already wealthy at workers’ expense.
Audio of Fourth Class
Fifth Class: November 13, 2022
TIMOTHY SNYDER: ON TYRANNY
NOTES on Chs. 19-20 & Epilogue
Ch. 19. Be a Patriot
Set a good example of what America means for the generations to come. They will need it. A nationalist encourages us to be our worst, and then tells us that we are the best.
A patriot, by contrast, wants the nation to live up to its ideals, which means asking us to be our best selves. A patriot must be concerned with the real world, which is the only place where their country can be loved and sustained. A patriot has universal values, standards by which they judge their nation, always wishing it well, and wishing that it would do better.
Democracy failed in Europe in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, and it is failing now not only in much of Europe but in many parts of the world today. It is history and experience that reveals to us the dark range of our possible futures.
Ch. 20. Be As Courageous As You Can
If none of us is prepared to die for freedom, then all of us will die under tyranny.
Epilogue. History and Liberty
We have forgotten history, and if we are not careful, we will neglect it for another. We Americans allowed ourselves to accept the politics of inevitability, the sense that history could move in only one direction: toward liberal democracy. In doing so, we lowered our defenses, constrained our imagination, and opened the way for precisely the kinds of regimes we told ourselves could never return.
The politics of eternity is concerned with the past. It longs for past moments that were supposedly golden. National populists’ preferred reference point is the era when democratic republics seemed vanquished and the Nazi and Soviet rivals unstoppable: the 1930s.
Both positions, inevitability and eternity, are anti-historical. If young people do not begin to make history, politicians of eternity and inevitability will destroy it. And to make history, young Americans will have to know some.
