ON TYRANNY, 20 Lessons... - Institutions .
In the 2nd of 20 Lessons, Timothy Snyder urges individual readers to support institutions--those that bolster and build-up society, societal strength. Above, you see each type. A brief of my concerns:
- Family - a vital segment of society, much strength depends on the paternal family
- Politics - arguably a necessary evil, it is commonly associated to government or state; the more politics, the more corruption as an adverse effect to societal strength
- Religion - as with the individual and government, religion is too subject to corruption; that is, turning to carnality, secularist and sensual,that undermines faith and absolute truth
- Media - with immense power, the media is used to mislead and manipulate public opinion/action; what physical force is to communism, the media is to any seemingly free society
- Education - education is presumably about fostering free thinking, creativity and calculation, but when designed to frame and form compliance and conformity, it falls woefully into an instrument of the state
- Economy - as it is as a comment/question, "What is a "free market" but an opportunity for power to create a crisis for the many and a boon for a few; ideally, markets should run with a modicum of regulation, so as to form
Tim writes,
It is institutions that help us to preserve decency...Institutions do not protect themselves; they fall one after the other unless each is defended from the beginning..
He continues, referring to the rise of the Third Reich,
It took less than a year for the new Nazi order to consolidate. By the end of 1933, Germany had become a one-party state in which all major institutions had been humbled...Some Germans voted as the Nazi leaders wanted them to in the hope that this gesture of loyalty would bind the new system to them. That was a vain hope.
What/where is your hope?
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