Watching this short video is eye opening.
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ADOPT AN INSTITUTION
From Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny (2017):
“It is institutions that help us to preserve decency. They need our help as well. Do not speak of "our institutions" unless you make them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions do not protect themselves. They fall one after the other unless each is defended from the beginning. (Bolded, mine.) So choose an institution you care about - a court, a newspaper, a law, a labor union — and take its side.
We tend to assume that institutions will automatically maintain themselves against even the most direct attacks. This was the very mistake that some German Jews made about Hitler and the Nazis after they had formed a government. On February 2, 1933, for example, a leading newspaper for German Jews published an editorial expressing this mislaid trust:
‘We do not subscribe to the view that Mr. Hitler and his friends, now finally in possession of the power they have so long desired, will implement the proposals circulating in [Nazi newspapers]; they will not suddenly deprive German Jews of their constitutional rights, nor enclose them in ghettos, nor subject them to the jealous and murderous impulses of the mob. They cannot do this because a number of crucial factors hold powers in check….. and they clearly do not want to go down that road. When one acts as a European power, the whole atmosphere tends towards ethical reflection upon one's better self and away from revisiting one's earlier oppositional posture’” (pp. 24-26).
Reading the excerpt above is a little surreal, isn’t it? I hear echoes of the voices of so many Republican MoC’s who have, since the traitor’s first term, denied the destructive aims of their leader.
But the point is, while every institution is under attack, please consider picking just one - your favorite, or the one you consider most important, or the least defended - pick that ONE and work at defending it. Letters to the editor, calls to your MoC’s, financial contributions to worthy organizations that will defend your one institution.
If you can do this, it will help. But don’t take our word for it. Here’s what Chenoweth and Stephan (2011) say,
“…High levels of participation in resistance campaigns can activate numerous mechanisms that improve the odds of success. Such mobilization is not always manifested in the form of mass rallies and street demonstrations but rather can manifest in numerous forms of social, political, and economic noncooperation. The tactical advantage of high levels of diverse participation explain – in large part – the historical success of nonviolent campaigns” (p.31).
See John Lithgow read Twenty Lessons on Tyranny, by Timothy Snyder here:
20 Lessons on Tyranny: by Timothy Snyder / read by John Lithgow
10:27 minutes