On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century Book Review and Analysis

Jan 14, 2025

Introduction

Hello everyone, welcome to the Mattacritic. This is Matthew Hemenway. I hope you all are having a great day. I having as good as a day as I can. In this episode of the Mattacritic, I will be reviewing and analyzing the book called On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century written by Timothy Synder as you can see right here if you are watching the video. It is on amazon, and you can go to https://www.amazon.com/Tyranny-Twenty-Lessons-Twentieth-Century/ to read or listen to the copy of the book. You can also go to https://www.parkroadbooks.com/book/9780804190114 to read and listen to the copy of the book. The book will give the reader and the listener twenty lessons in how to fight tyranny. I will list each lesson and help you to understand what you must do to fight tyranny. There are those that may think it has to be a complicated formula, but it does not have to be that. I will give you my rating of this book at the end of this review. I hope this episode will inspire you to read, watch, and learn.

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Rest of the Review and Ratin of On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

As was mentioned before, Timothy Synder will give the reader and the listener 20 lessons on how to fight tyranny from the 20th century. I will list them out for you. I will read each one of them for you. Lesson 1 do not obey in advance. Lesson 2 defend institutions. Lesson 3 beware of the one-party state. Lesson 4 take responsibility for the face of the world. Lesson 5 remember professional ethics. Leson 6 be wary of paramilitaries. Lesson 7 be reflective if you must be armed. Lesson 8 stand out. Lesson 9 be kind to our language. Lesson 10 believe in truth. Lesson 11 investigate. Lesson 12 make eye contact and small talk. Lesson 13 practice corporeal politics. Lesson 14 established a private life. Lesson 15 contribute to good causes. Lesson 16 learn from peers in other countries. Lesson 17 listen for dangerous words. Lesson 18 be calm when the unthinkable arrives. Lesson 19 be a patriot. Lesson 20 be as courageous as you can. I will go over as many as I can.

The first lesson is not to Obey In Advance. I will read from the book what that lesson entails. “Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts this way is teaching power what it can do”. If you obey in advance, you are telling those in power what it can do and get away with. This is the first and most important lesson you must learn. Do not obey in advance and resist whatever the status quo might suggest or say. After Adolf Hitler won the election in Germany and took power, the German citizens did exactly that and Adolf Hitler knew that the Germans more than willing to do what he wanted. They did what they should not have; obeyed in advance.

The second lesson is Defend Institutions. People will believe that Institutions will protect themselves, but that is not true. No institution will protect itself unless you are willing to defend it. You must be willing to protect that institution. For example, a newspaper you care about. Newspapers may seem weird at this moment in time. Another good example of a good source is to support is the Meidas Touch Network. There are three brothers who started the Meidas Touch Network, and their names are Ben Meislas, Brett Meislas, and Jordy Meislas. They formed in the effort to fight MAGA and to stand up to those who threaten our democracy here in the United States. Another good example of an institution that needs to be defended is the Department of Education. It is under attack, and you must be willing to defend it. The book tells how a German newspaper believed that Adolf Hitler would not dare to go after Jews and that it would be unheard of. As history shows this, it did happen. You must not assume that institutions will protect us unless we stand by them and defend them.

The third lesson is Beware the One-Party State. Why should be concerned of the One-Party State? The reason we should be concerned is that if that happens; there cannot be an opposition party to stand up to those who want to take our freedoms away. For example, this happened in Germany. Adolf Hitler was able to establish the Nazi Party, and it became what he wanted it to be. He consolidated power and made himself the ultimate ruler of Germany. What you have here in the United States, Democrats and Republicans running against each other, that is a good thing. What Donald Trump and his MAGA allies would like to do is take that away. They want to have a One-Party State. You must watch out for that.

The fourth lesson is Take Responsibility for the World. This lesson teaches that we must be willing to take responsibility for what is happening in the world. We must see what is happening and be willing to fight for it. For example, do not fly a Nazi flag, if you do, you must remove them. The book says we must not become agents of evil. If you notice yourself doing this, you must remove this from your life.

I will now jump to lesson eight and that is to Stand Out. You must be willing to stand out. For example, Rosa Parks stood out when she was on the bus and sat in the front seat and refused to move back of the bus. Winston Churchill did that during World War II when he told Hitler he would not bow to him as was shown in the movie called Darkest Hour. To watch the movie, go to https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4555426/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_darkes and it will have the link for you to watch it on Amazon of the IMDB page. Another good example of standing out is in the first book of the Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen took her sister’s place in the Hunger Games, and this will start a questioning of the system that is in place when she did that. It was shown in the first film of Hunger Games. I live a reference to read and watch Hunger Games in the description below. Thank you.

Lesson 14 is important that it tells the reader to establish a Private Life. This is important as I know that I want my life to be as private as possible. I like to keep to myself, and I personally do not want the government to come into my life and my bedroom. This is my house, and I believe that is important. If the government believes they should be in your bedroom, tell them no way Jose.

One of the things the author tells us that we must do to fight tyranny is to surround ourselves with books. In the story of 1984, Oceania has been stripped of books and surrounded with screens. The best thing you can do is to surround yourself with books and this will be a great step in fighting tyranny. Limit how often you are on screens and do as much as you can. The reason tyrants do not want you to read is that they want to control you. A good example of this is in the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where is book burning party and the Germans are blindly throwing books in the fire as I will bring up an image of it now. You can watch the movie here at https://www.disneyplus.com/browse/entity-86547501-55d6-4ef7-a1e6-a38c429e2879. This is how Adolf Hitler and the Nazis controlled the Germans and kept them under control. For example, when you see people banning books like what is happening in Florida, this is a great concern. The group called Moms for Liberty wants to do just that. In my humble opinion, they might as well be called the Moms for Tyranny. I will now have you watch the book burning party scene on YouTube from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade here.

The book will go on and tell us the lessons we must learn. It is important to read this book and do whatever you can to learn these lessons. It will take courage to fight tyranny. You must be willing to die for freedom, if not you will die under tyranny.

As not to be revealed, nothing more will be revealed here. The book does an excellent job of helping the reader and the listener to understand what one must do to fight tyranny.

I will give you, my rating. I give On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century a 10 out of 10. The book does an excellent job of helping the reader and listener to understand what one must do to fight tyranny. Supporting good causes is important as if you find a cause you care about; you must support it. You must be willing to make small talk and break the ice with anyone even those you disagree with. Remembering professional ethics will be important as to be sure you do not do things that you will regret later in your life. Being a patriot for example does not mean you believe it can never happen here. You believe it can happen here, and you will fight it if it does and do your best to stop it. You must be calm when the unthinkable happens. Do not allow a state of emergency to be used by anyone claiming we must surrender our freedom for security. As Ben Franklin said, “Those who give up their freedom for security deserve neither freedom nor security”. Adolf Hitler exploited an event that happened and told the Germans, they must give him emergency powers. Do not fall for it, it is the oldest trick in the authoritarian playbook. This happened in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones when Palpatine used the crisis of the separatist war to invoke emergency power. This allowed him to consolidate power at that moment in time. This is what we must watch out for. You can watch the movie on https://www.disneyplus.com/browse/entity-39cbdf17-1bbe-4de2-b4a4-8e342875c2c6. The book is a great read, and it is great that it comes with an audio version for those who like to listen to or need to listen to it. The author does an excellent job of writing this book simply because it helps those who need it broken down into simple terms. If you are on my blog of My Patreon Page, I will have you watch the clip of Palpatine invoking emergency powers given by Jar Jar Binks on YouTube at

. The reason I have hesitant to do it here in the video as I do not want to be flagged by YouTube, I will bring an image of it up instead. I will leave a link of the video in the description below if you are watching this video on YouTube. Thank you.

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On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century Book Review and Analysis

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