Believe in Truth

Reflections on Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny, Lesson Ten

Imagine for a moment, a Christmas Eve service; the people are singing Silent Night, one candle lights another until the room is filled with light.

“…heavenly hosts sing Alleluia!”

Then, with two verses remaining, someone starts blowing out candles. It’s not a child, it’s an adult, walking down the aisle, quietly extinguishing the lights.

The voices soften and begin to quiver, “…with the dawn of redeeming grace…”

Heads begin to lower, people blow their own candles out as the man approaches. Many sit down.

”Silent night…” A few begin to sing the fourth verse, but the music fades to silence.

This is what tyranny looks like as the authoritarian extinguishes the light.

How do they do it? They tell lies. The light represents truth.

Everyone lies from time to time to hide something, but authoritarian lies serve a different purpose.

Authoritarian lies often seem arbitrary and we’re left to wonder, “Why? Why would they lie about that, when everyone knows it’s a lie?”

Then, we notice people repeating the lie. Do they believe it? Maybe we start to question it ourselves.

It’s never just one lie. The authoritarian rewrites history, they slander anyone who objects, and dismiss or destroy evidence.

Over time, we don’t know who to trust and we begin to question our ability to know truth from fiction.

That was the purpose of the lies - to make us question reality.

As the room gets darker and darker, we get tired, and we learn to rely on the leader to tell us what is true.

Once the leader defines reality, then consequential decisions are made based on what they say, instead of on empirical evidence, because objective reality no longer exists.

If you’ve been following this series, you’ll notice that I jumped ahead a little bit, that’s because the game has changed.

When On Tyranny was published in 2017, one might have sounded a little “deranged” if they said that in the 21st century, the United States would be slipping into authoritarianism, but here we are.

What we are now experiencing is psychological warfare; our minds are under assault (that’s why you’re so tired). Everyday it seems to require more energy to stay grounded in reality.

When On Tyranny was written, the sanctuary was still filled with people lifting up their candles while they sang. Today, the room is quieter, darker.

Truth is our primary defense against tyranny, we have to believe in it first.

Follow me on Substack to get content delivered to your inbox.