Lessons from the 20th Century

20 Lessons from the 20th Century by Timothy Snyder (Crown Publishing Group, NY, 2017) is the title of the book I am focusing on today. According to the author, history does not repeat, but instructs. He also added that history can familiarize but can also serve as a warning. The 20th century can therefore serve as a warning to the new 21st century generation. The era of globalization began in this century. It created the inequalities that persist until today. It seems that the apparent helplessness of democracies in addressing these inequalities is another warning to the present and future generation. In a review by the New York Times, it said, “Mr. Snyder is a rising public intellectual unafraid to make bold connections between past and present.”

The 20th century gave birth to the Industrial Revolution and to great inventions like the airplane, the automobile, and unfortunately, the nuclear bomb. The inequalities saw the beginning of fascism and communism as responses to the ill effects of globalization.

It was in Europe, the most prosperous continent on earth that saw the birth of fascism. Many people have forgotten that it was also here in this continent that Nazism took roots and almost conquered the whole of Europe. The author said: “This book presents 20 lessons from the 20th century adapted to the circumstances of today.”

I have chosen a select few of the most relevant lessons today due to limited space.

• Defend institutions. Institutions are those that help preserve democracy in a society. But institutions do not protect themselves. They fall one by one unless defended from the beginning. Snyder says that each person should choose at least one institution they care about and take its side. This can be a court, a newspaper, a law or a labor union or similar institutions.

The German Jews thought institutions would protect them against Hitler and the Nazis. They had no idea that the Nazi rule would go against long-held rights and the protection of institutions, so the German Jews were deprived of their constitutional rights and the German population did not rebel.

Snyder says: “The mistake is to assume that rulers who came to power through institutions cannot change or destroy those very institutions even when that is exactly what they have announced they would do.”

There were also German Jews who voted as the Nazi leaders wanted them to in the hope that this was a gesture of loyalty that would allow them to co-exist in the new system. This was a hope that never came true.

• Believe in truth. Snyder wrote: “To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power because there is no basis to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lies.”

There are many people who cannot see the difference between what they want to hear and what is actually the truth. In fact, there are people who openly resist verifiable reality and insist on presenting lies as if they were facts. There are even people who go farther and place their trust in misplaced faith. They believe in a person who says “I alone can solve it” or “I am your voice.”

Snyder says: “When faith descends from heaven to earth in this way, no room remains for the small truth of our individual discernment and experience.”

Eugene Ionesco, the great Romanian-French playwright, watched the rise of fascism in the 1930s. He wrote his observation on how bizarre propaganda actually is, but how normal it seems for those who yield to it.

• Be a patriot. Snyder talks of patriotism by first defining what patriotism is not. He says a patriot wants his or her nation to live up to its ideals and must be concerned with the real world. He says, “A patriot has universal values, standards by which he judges his nation, always wishing it well and wishing that it would do better.”  There are many who say it cannot happen here, which is the first step towards disaster. Snyder says, “A patriot says it could happen here, but we will stop it.”

• Contribute to good causes. If you truly want to help your nation, be active in organizations that express your own view of life. This will enable you to support civil society and help others to do good. We must share our time and resources in an undertaking that hopefully will teach us that we can trust people beyond our narrow circle of friends and family. In the 20th century, the anti-communist dissidents of eastern Europe facing a harsh oppressive situation, recognized that seemingly nonpolitical activity of civil society could be an expression and a safeguard of freedom. The author says: “In the 20th century, all the major enemies of freedom were hostile to all nongovernment organizations, charities and the like…. Today’s authoritarians in India, Turkey, Russia, China, Brazil are also highly allergic to free associations and nongovernment organizations.”

Snyder concludes his book with an economy of words: “Be as courageous as you can. If none of us is prepared to die for freedom, then all of us will die under tyranny.”

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Young Writers’ Hangout on July 23 with returning author-facilitator Kim Derla, 2-3 p.m.

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