Monday, January 11, 2021

A new orchid and 20 lessons on Tyranny

 

At the local grocery store the other day, this different (to me) orchid said hi, take me home...or at least the feeling came upon me that I would like to take it home!



Most of the buds had already opened.

I had one bud to watch, and before 2 days had gone by...




This simple beauty had opened all it's flowers for New Year's Day. It's somewhat like the one I showed the other day. But that one has little freckles, while this one doesn't. Apparently my warm apartment pleases these tropical plants. Being on the second floor means my living room never gets terribly cold. 



Here's a wonderful salad I had for lunch a few days ago...some feta cheese is sprinkled in with tomatoes and avocado and lettuce, with a low-fat ranch dressing.


Today's quote: From Open Culture daily newsletter HERE.  Note: This post originally appeared on our site in January 2017.
Timothy Snyder, Housum Professor of History at Yale University.  Read Snyder’s lessons from his Facebook post below and consider ordering his latest book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century:

1. Do not obey in advance. Much 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 start to do it without being asked. You’ve already done this, haven’t you? Stop. Anticipatory obedience teaches authorities what is possible and accelerates unfreedom.

2. Defend an institution. Follow the courts or the media, or a court or a newspaper. Do not speak of “our institutions” unless you are making them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions don’t protect themselves. They go down like dominoes unless each is defended from the beginning.

3. Recall professional ethics. When the leaders of state set a negative example, professional commitments to just practice become much more important. It is hard to break a rule-of-law state without lawyers, and it is hard to have show trials without judges.

4. When listening to politicians, distinguish certain words. Look out for the expansive use of “terrorism” and “extremism.” Be alive to the fatal notions of “exception” and “emergency.” Be angry about the treacherous use of patriotic vocabulary.

5. Be calm when the unthinkable arrives. When the terrorist attack comes, remember that all authoritarians at all times either await or plan such events in order to consolidate power. Think of the Reichstag fire. The sudden disaster that requires the end of the balance of power, the end of opposition parties, and so on, is the oldest trick in the Hitlerian book. Don’t fall for it.

6. Be kind to our language. Avoid pronouncing the phrases everyone else does. Think up your own way of speaking, even if only to convey that thing you think everyone is saying. (Don’t use the internet before bed. Charge your gadgets away from your bedroom, and read.) What to read? Perhaps “The Power of the Powerless” by Václav Havel, 1984 by George Orwell, The Captive Mind by Czesław Milosz, The Rebel by Albert Camus, The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt, or Nothing is True and Everything is Possible by Peter Pomerantsev.

7. Stand out. Someone has to. It is easy, in words and deeds, to follow along. It can feel strange to do or say something different. But without that unease, there is no freedom. And the moment you set an example, the spell of the status quo is broken, and others will follow.

8. Believe in truth. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.

9. Investigate. Figure things out for yourself. Spend more time with long articles. Subsidize investigative journalism by subscribing to print media. Realize that some of what is on your screen is there to harm you. Learn about sites that investigate foreign propaganda pushes.

10. Practice corporeal politics. Power wants your body softening in your chair and your emotions dissipating on the screen. Get outside. Put your body in unfamiliar places with unfamiliar people. Make new friends and march with them.

11. Make eye contact and small talk. This is not just polite. It is a way to stay in touch with your surroundings, break down unnecessary social barriers, and come to understand whom you should and should not trust. If we enter a culture of denunciation, you will want to know the psychological landscape of your daily life.

12. Take responsibility for the face of the world. Notice the swastikas and the other signs of hate. Do not look away and do not get used to them. Remove them yourself and set an example for others to do so.

13. Hinder the one-party state. The parties that took over states were once something else. They exploited a historical moment to make political life impossible for their rivals. Vote in local and state elections while you can.

14. Give regularly to good causes, if you can. Pick a charity and set up autopay. Then you will know that you have made a free choice that is supporting civil society helping others doing something good.

15. Establish a private life. Nastier rulers will use what they know about you to push you around. Scrub your computer of malware. Remember that email is skywriting. Consider using alternative forms of the internet, or simply using it less. Have personal exchanges in person. For the same reason, resolve any legal trouble. Authoritarianism works as a blackmail state, looking for the hook on which to hang you. Try not to have too many hooks.

16. Learn from others in other countries. Keep up your friendships abroad, or make new friends abroad. The present difficulties here are an element of a general trend. And no country is going to find a solution by itself. Make sure you and your family have passports.

17. Watch out for the paramilitaries. When the men with guns who have always claimed to be against the system start wearing uniforms and marching around with torches and pictures of a Leader, the end is nigh. When the pro-Leader paramilitary and the official police and military intermingle, the game is over.

18. Be reflective if you must be armed. If you carry a weapon in public service, God bless you and keep you. But know that evils of the past involved policemen and soldiers finding themselves, one day, doing irregular things. Be ready to say no. (If you do not know what this means, contact the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and ask about training in professional ethics.)

19. Be as courageous as you can. If none of us is prepared to die for freedom, then all of us will die in unfreedom.

20. Be a patriot. The incoming president (in 2017, Trump) is not. Set a good example of what America means for the generations to come. They will need it.

via Kottke

Oh, and I have to add (late Sunday) a quote from John Pavlovitz.

"This was a nothing revolution: an empty display of cheap anger formed in staggering privilege, made of fake oppression, inflamed by a massive lie—and directed toward a man who fully embodies them: one who has had everything in this life handed to him and is perpetually outraged when cannot have more.

"As the stories of these wannabe revolutionaries are being revealed, we are seeing the truth: that these were not the poor, rural whites the media has been telling us were the heart of this trashcan despot’s rabid base who Blue voters need to understand.

   

"...It was a marvel to see the absolute most privileged humans walking the planet still manage to convince themselves that they’re oppressed—to be culpable for a murderous act of terrorism and to somehow be even more defiant after it.

"History will record and quantify the events of January 6th, but it will tell a very different story than the one playing in the heads of the perpetrators and of their disgraced, emotionally bankrupt white messiah.

"It will pass the judgement without prejudice:

"This was an empty insurrection.


It was a deadly, costly nothing revolution."

















13 comments:

  1. Such a pretty flower. I suspect that our lack of warmth is at least part of cause of house plants not doing very well. The other part may be that neither of us cares too very much about house palnts.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, I have to admit I have long wished that my 4 remaining tropical fish would give up the ghost. I can't seem to be interested in them...but they just keep surviving too!

      Delete
  2. ...over 50 years ago with I started in the nursery business orchids were an expensive, premium plant. Then new propagating techniques were developed and they began a staple of grocery stores. The democratisation of the plant!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, I guess that's part of the thrill of having 3 of them now. I remember when you had to go to arboretums to see orchids! (arboreti?)

      Delete
  3. Thanks for sharing this. It's important to have a clear idea of what is happening.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I do like passing on information that I found helpful.

      Delete
  4. I always love seeing your blooming orchids.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hello Barbara,

    Your new orchid is beautiful, lovely blooms. Thanks for sharing the newsletter and the Pavlovitz quote, great advice.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is one of my services to friends to pass along information.

      Delete
  6. My house gets cold during the weekday because I mostly allow it to, so it wouldn't be a good environment for house plants. I've never bothered to reprogram my thermostat and the furnace thinks I'm at work during the day. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh my, you are certainly keeping up your sweater wearing, I'd imagine!

      Delete
  7. The orchid blooms are nice to see, very pretty.

    ReplyDelete

There is today, more than ever, the need for a compassionate regenerative world civilization.