On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
is a 2017 book by Timothy Snyder, ... [Wikipedia]
On Tyranny was on the best-seller list for a long time, and got some of us through the Trump years, and probably through some Wikipedia years as well. While some Wikipedians swear by Alinsky's Rules for Radicals, and can quote from it verbatim, this book is probably at least as important. While Alinsky's book is about tactics, Synder's book is about choices. Anyone can use Alinsky's book, even tyrants. It is amoral. Snyder's tactics are based on discerning an ethical path, and using that as a fulcrum.
Now you can listen to the author explain the twenty points on video. Video is the new medium, the millennials love it. And some people just learn better with the spoken word rather than the written word, even if most people can read much faster than they can listen.
The reason for new videos right now is that the author has a new book out, or rather the old book updated. You really can't blame him. A book is first released in hard-cover, the most expensive format, then, if you can wait, you have a chance to buy a cheaper paperback edition. Finally, everyone who wants to read the book has already read it, and you can buy a bazillion copies of it second hand, which the original author does not see a penny from. So the author's only choice is to either write a new book or reissue the old book with something new, like a new foreword by someone famous, who can now be claimed as an author. Ask New York Brad how he did his paperback deal (it's a nice foreword, by the way). So On Tyranny was re-released last year (2021) with some new illustrations and some new post-election comment. And videos. Here is the first one, "Do not obey in advance".
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