On Tyranny and the Twelve Days of Christmas

Here we are, days away from the first of the Twelve Days beginning on Christmas Day and ending on January 6, the feast of Epiphany, or the Feast of the Three Kings, depending on where you live. The lyrics of this popular carol test our collective memories each year as we count down from the twelfth to the first day naming gifts that "my true love gave to me." How many gifts spring to mind? This old chestnut, best sung with others to keep up the momentum and the memory, is all in good cheer. What follows is a "spoiler alert" for any readers in my family.

This year when the stockings are all hung with care, my stocking stuffer for college grandkids and grown children is the book: "On Tyranny Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century." Bah humbug! It's not exactly twelve lords are leaping, beginning with chapter one: "Do not obey in advance" and a hundred pages later concluding with the twentieth: "Be as courageous as you can." Why this book this year? Why not the traditional "A Child's Christmas in Wales"? There is room for both, but this year we must ask ourselves "If I am (only) for myself, what am I. And if not now, when?” – Hillel*

This "how to" book on living democratically when all signs point to its destruction and demise, guides the average American, you and me and your families and friends, toward action that is based on experiences of those who know more than we do about tyranny, so far. It opened my eyes to the subtleties and not so subtle historical events that easily paved the way for tyrants to assume total power over people. For example: "Nazi storm troopers began as a security detail clearing the halls of Hitler's opponents during his rallies." . . ."What was novel in 2016 was a candidate who ordered a private security detail to clear opponents from rallies . . ." (Page 44-45).

"Believe in Truth." Chapter 10 begins: "You submit to tyranny when you renounce the difference between what you want to hear and what is actually the case." Author, Timothy Snyder describes how "Truth dies in four modes. First, open hostility to verifiable reality...The second mode ... endless repetition ... The systematic use of nicknames ... 'Crooked Hillary'... repeated chants ... 'Build that wall'... The next mode is magical thinking, or the open embrace of contradiction...A disease that kills hundreds of thousands will vanish ...The final mode is misplaced faith...'I am your voice.' (Pages 66-67)

The litany of words like lyrics of the "Twelve Days" stick with you. If they become absorbed and embedded into one's mind, one's thoughts, one's beliefs, all is lost and the tyrant WILL seize the day. "Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given." That is the first sentence of this book. It should play over and over in our thoughts like "Five gold rings" the one line everyone seems to remember when singing along. We could use a melody to underscore "Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given" then sing it from the rooftops for all to hear. If that's not your style, or you live in a place like Florida where certain voices are drowned out by louder ones that run with the tyrants, then ask Santa for the book: On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder. It's a gift we owe ourselves at this critical juncture.

*Ethics of the Fathers, 1:14