On Tyranny Lessons 17-20 & Epilogue Summary & Analysis

17: Listen for dangerous words

Lesson 17 opens by urging the reader to be on guard when leaders begin to routinely use terms like extremism and terrorism. Tyrants try to undermine established rules by claiming that present circumstances are exceptional and thus call for a radical shift in laws and social norms. Tyrants will then establish a notion of the mainstream and label anyone outside of it as extremists. Extremism is not a doctrine in itself, Snyder observes. Many of the people who resisted communism and fascism were labeled extremists. This made it easier to separate out and attack such individuals.

18: Be calm when the unthinkable arrives

Lesson 18 opens with a statement that managing terror attacks fuels the success of tyranny. Tyrants will use emergencies to consolidate power and undermine existing institutions. The lesson starts by describing the events following the 1933 Reichstag fire in Germany. While Adolf Hitler had already been elected, the fire gave him the opportunity to suspend the rights of German citizens in an effort to combat the enemies that started the fire. In the same vein, after a series of bombing attacks in Russia in 1999, newly appointed prime minister Vladimir Putin gained popularity by vowing to fight the internal threat. Over the next decade, Putin responded to terror attacks by eliminating private television in Russia as well as regional governorships. Russia then created narratives about terror attacks in both France and Germany, in order to destabilize their democracies. In the United States, government measures taken to contain the Covid-19 pandemic met with great opposition, and Snyder notes that Donald Trump openly doubted the integrity of the 2020 Presidential election, claiming that he was cheated out of victory. Emergencies, real or fabricated, can create opportunities for a coup.

19: Be a patriot

Lesson 19 starts with a statement that Americans should embody what they want America to be for future generations. The lesson contrasts the terms patriot and nationalist. Patriotism is defined negatively, with a rundown of actions that are not patriotic: dodging the draft, mocking and discriminating against military members, using campaign funds to support one’s own companies, praising fascist dictators such as Vladimir Putin, and sabotaging an election. These are the activities of a nationalist (specifically of Donald Trump, although he goes unnamed), whereas patriots have values and ideals that they believe will make the country better. The lesson closes by stating that throughout the 20th century, democracy failed across Europe and continues to fail there. Nationalists will state that it cannot fail in America, while patriots will recognize the possibility and try to intervene.

20: Be as courageous as you can

Lesson 20 contains only one statement: “If none of us is prepared to die for freedom, then all of us will die under tyranny.”

Epilogue: History and Liberty

The Epilogue, labeled “,” discusses two different modes of thought that are each problematic. The first, the politics of inevitability, is marked by confidence that fascism and communism failed and are increasingly irrelevant. The American systems of government, economy, etc. were superior and thus survived; therefore, nothing will threaten such systems. Americans who naïvely think like this cannot imagine anything other than continued success and prosperity, ignoring all of the threats and symptoms of failure in the systems. The second mode of thought is the politics of eternity, where people are stuck reminiscing about past events that likely never happened. People become cynical, attributing the present failings of their once-faultless nation to an outside attack, too absorbed in being a victim to try to create change. Snyder warns that America suffered under the ignorance of the politics of inevitability for so long that future generations will have difficulty avoiding slipping into the politics of eternity. Such a slide would be disastrous.

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